Help find a bolt to fit the upper rear seatbelt hole in the roll bar? I dont have a backseat want to mount speakers?

[jboudreaux1965]

I don't have a backseat, so no need for seatbelts. So I want to use the screw holes at the top to mount speakers. From what I read they are supposed to be 7/16-20 bolts. I bought 2 sets and neither fit. I would buy the OEM bolts but they have the gap for the seatbelt. I need the speaker brackets to be screwed tight against the roll bar. Anyone know where to find bolts like that? This is the general idea.

Thanks

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

The 7/16-20s didn't fit cause they weren't the right thread? I think that is what the OEM bolts on my 98 are; if they're not 7/16-20, you could try 7/16-18, or maybe M10 or M12, but I'm pretty sure that 7/16-20 is the correct thread. What year is your TJ; I'm not sure if those were ever different across model years. Is it possible that the threads inside the roll cage are messed up? If so, you could tap them, or, if they're totally jacked up, you could drill them out and tap them slightly bigger (limited by the thickness of the surrounding material though). Depending on how big the distance is that the stock bolts are threadless, you could always stack washers or sleeve bearings on them for now. Assuming you have them, have you taken the old bolts to a hardware store or otherwise run them through a sizing gauge? That'll tell you pretty quick whether it's bolt size or threads that are your issue.

 

[inline6aficionado]

I have my rear belts off for another project. According to my crappy little thread finder, they're 7/16-20 or something extremely close. Didn't fit in the M10 hole so I don't think that is right.

I'd expect your local ace hardware to have a bolt bin area where you could find a button head star drive 7/16-20 x 2" or something that would work. Mine was pretty gummed up with threadlocker, FYI.

 

[MountaineerTom]

7/16-20 on my 2006 according to my thread checker. Maybe the threads got messed up a little. You could try running a tap through it to clean them up.