Tailgate hinge bolts spinning without tightening

[e_artiles]

I recently purchased the Morryde tailgate & hinge reinforcement for my 2006 Jeep Wrangler. The installation went perfectly without a hitch, until it came to tightening the 4 hinge bolts on the tailgate. They threaded on to a point, but then started spinning without further tightening. Has anyone encountered this? Any suggestions as to how can I tighten these bolts?

 

[JMT]

I know the nuts are internal to the door. Maybe they were welded to the internals. I'm not sure. Hopefully, someone else will chime in.

 

[Tray Burge]

My problem was getting them out!

 

[e_artiles]

Nobody out there has run into this problem?

 

[Bigfoot-NM]

I ran into this problem with the bottom two. Here is a pic of basically what is inside the tailgate. (This isn't the exact part but very similar) There is one for the bottom two bolts and one for the top two bolts.

I'm not sure these are replaceable without tearing apart the tailgate inner panel to get to them.

My solution was to take a small drill bit and drill from the outside through the inside panel of the jeep. Then from the inside, I drilled an 11/32" hole through the inner tailgate panel. I took a piece of 2" flat stock, approximately 6" long and drilled two 11/32" holes to line up with the tailgate bolt holes. I then ran the two bolts from the inside to the outside and put nuts on the hinge side.

If the top two nutplates ever give out, I think I'll take an entire piece of plate steel that covers the entire area between the lower two and upper two nutplates.

If someone else has a better solution, I'd also like to see it.

 

[mrblaine]

I know the nuts are internal to the door. Maybe they were welded to the internals. I'm not sure. Hopefully, someone else will chime in.

They are a floating nut plate captured in a sheet metal cage. If you search that term, it will bring up lots of examples.

 

[mrblaine]

Any suggestions as to how can I tighten these bolts?

It will depend on what the problem is. It may be as simple as just tapping the nut plate for the next size up fastener. It may be that you are using the wrong size in what you have. Need to see it to know for sure. If you want to swing by with the tail gate, I can take a look and see if it can be fixed easily. The stock size is 5/16-18. Next size up would be 3/8-16 or 10mm x 1.25.

 

[e_artiles]

It will depend on what the problem is. It may be as simple as just tapping the nut plate for the next size up fastener. It may be that you are using the wrong size in what you have. Need to see it to know for sure. If you want to swing by with the tail gate, I can take a look and see if it can be fixed easily. The stock size is 5/16-18. Next size up would be 3/8-16 or 10mm x 1.25.

Thanks for the reply, where are you located?

 

[e_artiles]

I ran into this problem with the bottom two. Here is a pic of basically what is inside the tailgate. (This isn't the exact part but very similar) There is one for the bottom two bolts and one for the top two bolts.View attachment 218633



I'm not sure these are replaceable without tearing apart the tailgate inner panel to get to them.

My solution was to take a small drill bit and drill from the outside through the inside panel of the jeep. Then from the inside, I drilled an 11/32" hole through the inner tailgate panel. I took a piece of 2" flat stock, approximately 6" long and drilled two 11/32" holes to line up with the tailgate bolt holes. I then ran the two bolts from the inside to the outside and put nuts on the hinge side.

If the top two nutplates ever give out, I think I'll take an entire piece of plate steel that covers the entire area between the lower two and upper two nutplates.

If someone else has a better solution, I'd also like to see it.

View attachment 218634

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not understanding your process. Did you drill from the outside thru the nut hole and the interior plate all the way to the interior skin of the tailgate?

 

[Bigfoot-NM]

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not understanding your process. Did you drill from the outside thru the nut hole and the interior plate all the way to the interior skin of the tailgate?

Correct. I used a small drill bit to drill from the outside, through the center of the nut plate, and drilled a small hole through the interior tail gate panel. Then I used an 11/32 bit and using the small hole in the interior panel as a pilot hole, drilled the 11/32 hole into the interior panel. I did that for both bottom locations. Then I ran longer bolts from the inside of the jeep, through the nut plate and the out of the outer tailgate skin. I then mounted the lower hinge on the two bolts sticking out and put lock nuts on them.

 

[mrblaine]

Thanks for the reply, where are you located?

Just a bit inland of Lake Elsinore.

 

[e_artiles]

Can you PM me, I'm new on here and can't figure out how to do that.

 

[PirataCoqui]

It will depend on what the problem is. It may be as simple as just tapping the nut plate for the next size up fastener. It may be that you are using the wrong size in what you have. Need to see it to know for sure. If you want to swing by with the tail gate, I can take a look and see if it can be fixed easily. The stock size is 5/16-18. Next size up would be 3/8-16 or 10mm x 1.25.

I know this is an old thread, but worth bumping for anyone searching. My tailgate hinge bottom bolts both had stripped threads, and after a search, rather than relying on my brain, the first and most appealing idea that came up a few times was to drill straight through the tailgate or use a nutsert. Don't, unless tapping to a larger size doesn't work.

After stepping away, I hated the idea, and while trying to find the bolt size, I came across @mrblaine's comment above, and I really think it's the solution people should try first; it's a 5-minute fix.

For further context, I was working on the Moryde Tailgate reinforcement project. It took me less than 5 minutes to retap both holes to 3/8-16 and have new bolts installed without tearing up my tailgate.