Seat belt anchor seized

[barryhercules]

Ok so the seatbelt anchor point bolt in my chimaera has seized and the head has sheared off the bolt. Ive soaked it in penetrating oil for a week, tried welding nuts onto the damn thing and its not shifting so does anybody know anyone in the midlands who might be able to help im not prepared to try easy outs or drilling it out for fear of any more problems.

Cheers

[ianwayne]

I did this years ago when I changed the carpets. A night mare to try and get it out. I took it to a garage and they couldn't shif it either. In the end they bolted the seatbelt anchor strap to the same bolt that held the seatbelt reel. I think this is on the seat itself.
Not sure how legal this is so please accept a 'disclaimer' if it fails the MoT. I sold the car before the next test so I can't advise on that.

[barryhercules]

Yes i can see that working as a quick fix but im not too comfortable with it long term....

[tvrbob]

Just been checking mine because I plan to take them out in the next few weeks to fit eyelets. One is seized solid.

It's a case of seats out, shear the head off, drill the centre out progressively bigger sizes and then re-tap the thread. Looks like a full day on one bolt. The joys of TVR ownership

[barryhercules]

anyone had any luck sourcing left handed drill bits in the uk, got to be worth i go i guess,...

[That Daddy]

tvrbob said:

Just been checking mine because I plan to take them out in the next few weeks to fit eyelets. One is seized solid.

It's a case of seats out, shear the head off, drill the centre out progressively bigger sizes and then re-tap the thread. Looks like a full day on one bolt. The joys of TVR ownership

Yep same here drivers side,it will have to yield soon cause i am fitting new carpets

[HRG]

Ring round your local welding/engineering shops. They may be able to get it out using spark erosion. Usual protect the battery/alternator principles may apply.

[ray_von]

One of the suggestions on here is doomed to failure

[barryhercules]

tvrbob said:

ray_von said:

One of the suggestions on here is doomed to failure

Do share

No please don't spoil it for me a 50% chance of success is better than i usually manage....

[ray_von]

Late ( or early) reply . Getting the hole drilled exactly in the centre, and running concentrically down the snapped bolt, will, probably, be impossible. Even if you do once you get to the tapping size you will be left with the'shell' of the old bolt in the threads. Once you start tapping the thread there's every chance the remaining bolt will just jam on the tap and then you are going to have big problems, nothing worse than a snapped tap.Even if you do achieve this the new thread will start at a different place and you'll end up with a crappy thread anyway.
If you get to the point of having the tapping size through the bolt try picking the remaining part out, but to be honest this is a lottery as well.
No doubt people will say this is a load of crap but try it you may be lucky, but IMHO you could be in bother
HTH

Not the best description of what I mean, but it is early

[Pink_Floyd]

Not wanting to go off topic but is there anything special about seat belt bolts?

[That Daddy]

No just the thread(very fine)they are not high tensile bolts generally(well not the one i have seen)hows that for a quick reply

[HRG]

ray_von said:

Late ( or early) reply . Getting the hole drilled exactly in the centre, and running concentrically down the snapped bolt, will, probably, be impossible. Even if you do once you get to the tapping size you will be left with the'shell' of the old bolt in the threads. Once you start tapping the thread there's every chance the remaining bolt will just jam on the tap and then you are going to have big problems, nothing worse than a snapped tap.Even if you do achieve this the new thread will start at a different place and you'll end up with a crappy thread anyway.
If you get to the point of having the tapping size through the bolt try picking the remaining part out, but to be honest this is a lottery as well.
No doubt people will say this is a load of crap but try it you may be lucky, but IMHO you could be in bother
HTH

Not the best description of what I mean, but it is early

Sound advice You might get lucky on centre if you had the assembly in a pillar drill (hehe), but hand drilling dead on centre is nigh on impossible. There's no way you could even get a mag base on there.

Spark erosion would probably work in this particular case. Drilling and helicoiling is a possibility but I'd want to know the sort of shock loading they can handle before heading down that route.

[ray_von]

HRG said:

Drilling and helicoiling is a possibility but I'd want to know the sort of shock loading they can handle before heading down that route.

Very true. Bob, if you want to go 'next size up' How much 'meat' do you have to play with? I'm not sure of what the set up is. If you have plenty you can do that, but I wouldn't have thought the'next size up' bolt would pass through the anchor without opening that up.
Then again, what would I know I only worked in a factory where car seats were made for 8 years

ETA A full day!!! Step away from the tools

Edited by ray_von on Saturday 7th June 13:20

[Uncle Fester]

barryhercules said:

anyone had any luck sourcing left handed drill bits in the uk, got to be worth i go i guess,...

Snap-On makes them.

[nawarne]

tvrbob said:

Several PHers have posted that they successfully drilled and re-tapped the chassis mount. It does sound like an awkward task though.

Yep,
Went this way when I renewed the seatbelts on mine!
Have to say I gave it to the local garage who get a pensioner in (!!) who loves a challenge!

All I had to do was remove the passenger seat and leave it with the garage. Picked it up at 4pm - job done - £60...which I thought was very reasonable, because I usually run out of swear words (and drill bits)after 2 hours.

Used plenty of copperslip when re-assembling!

Nick

[barryhercules]

Woo Yay etc, the bolt finally came out with one last attempt at welding a nut over the top, once the outriggers were hot from the welding i froze frakenbolt with some plumbers freeze spray to try and break the rust bonds and with a little help from my friend mr breaker bar its come out....

If i hadn't had so many gins celebrating id be out hooning right now!

Cheers.

[ray_von]

Glad you sorted it Barry.

Edited by ray_von on Monday 9th June 10:45