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During removal of the bed on my 2017 F350 I was able to remove 5 of the 8 bolts. For the remaining 3, I ground the heads off. My plan was to use a pipe wrench to twist them out once the bed was off. Now with the bed removed, all three will turn but the nut in the frame clip is also turning. The frame pocket is too small to get a back-up wrench on the nut. I thought about cutting the remaining bolt off but I looks line I still won't be able to remove the frame clip/nut because the bolt os extended down into the frame. I won't be able to tilt it enough wiggle it out.
I ended up cutting them off as close to the frame as possible then used a small cut-off wheel to cut the clip. I used vice grips to weasel the clip out of the pocket. The nut and remainder of the bolt was too long to pull out through the frame pocket so I used a punch and drove the nut and remainder of the bolt down into the frame and fished it out using a magnet through an existing opening in the frame. This worked for all 3.
I ground the heads off 4 of the bolts, lifted the bed off, then sliced the nuts on 1 side with a plasma cutter I borrowed from my son in law. It took about 15 seconds per nut. I did cover the fuel tank with a rubber mat for good measure!
Are you folks with stuck bed bolts is this situation because of road salt in your areas of travel, or is Ford doing some sort of factory torque-to-yield with thread locker?
Are you folks with stuck bed bolts is this situation because of road salt in your areas of travel, or is Ford doing some sort of factory torque-to-yield with thread locker?
yes...thread locker..same problem with bed bolts and body mount bolts
Are you folks with stuck bed bolts is this situation because of road salt in your areas of travel, or is Ford doing some sort of factory torque-to-yield with thread locker?
There doesn't appear to be any thread locker, and they have a specific torque (pretty high torque), so not torque to yield. The bolts do cut the threads (tri-lobular) in the nuts on initial install.
Are you folks with stuck bed bolts is this situation because of road salt in your areas of travel, or is Ford doing some sort of factory torque-to-yield with thread locker?
Mine was due to the clips that are tack welded to the nuts break the tack and then the nuts spin... the clips block access. The nuts were rusty, so corrosion plays a part.
My bolts had already had been removed and reinstalled by Line-X, so I don't think the locktite played a major role.
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