I have Rugged Ridge windshield light brackets (same as pic). When I attempted to remove the brackets to repaint, the upper left torx bolt was spinning freely and would not remove. I am assuming the spot welded nut on the backside broke loose? Has anyone encountered this? I am considering just drilling out the bolt, but wanted some insight as to how I can repair the nut on the backside. Any help is appreciated.

 

Try removing all bolts and bracket and see if you can fix it.

 

I removed the remaining bolts on the bracket and was unable to remove the bracket because the upper left bolt is still holding it in place.

 

Any last minute advise/suggestions? I ordered a new set of Poison Spyder lower a-pillar mounts (pic below) and plan on installing this weekend. At this point, I guess i am just going to drill out the bolt that is attached the the nut that came free. I haven't been able to find a good picture of what is behind the windshield bracket. Any input would be appreciated (i.e. is it a welded nut, nutsert, etc). Also, how could i go about replacing or re-attaching the fastener?

 

You can try using outward pressure on the lower right corner to see if you can get the torx bolt out. I have had some luck doing this in the past but not always.

 

I had to make a wedge out of delrin, break the plastic washer under the bolt, pull it out and slowly press the delrin wedge under the bolt head as I twisted it out. Came out rather quickly.

 

Thank you for the input. I will try the recommendations posted above and follow up after the weekend with my results.

 

So I finally got the new Poison Spyder brackets and did the swap last night.

Reason for changing.


The upper left bolt was spinning free so I drilled through the head.


Windshield support bracket removed. As you can see, there is not a lot of room to access the backside of the fastener.


I was able to pull the remaining bolt and square nut from the backside.


The nut was severely rusted to the bolt. I had to put it in a vice and use considerable force to free the nut. I don't think it would have been possible to wedge the bracket and remove the bolt without drilling. The square nut was held in place on the backside by three tabs. The tabs had been bent out of position, however I was able to pry the tabs back in to position and re-insert the nut. It was harder than it sounds due to the limited amount of space. Inserting the nut alone was like playing a cruel version of Operation.

The end result

 

Good job. Glad everything worked out.

 

Did this today trying to install rough country mounts.. One of the four just spun and spun.

I was able to break the back of bolt and spin it out. BUT looks like I cracked my winsheild! SH #T!

So Now I have bracket held on by one bolt and a empty hole that I can't thread into plusba cracked windshield