Removing the Windshield

If you look back at my last post, I made note of stripping out a few torx bolts that holds the windshield onto the jeep. The problem became worse before it got better.

In this picture you can see four of the torx bolt. Two attached to the windshield and two attached to the body. There are also four more bolts on the side. This makes eight bolts on each side which were all completely rusted.

My first attempt was to just put a rachet to the bolts and turn with some strength. This was stupid. All I did was strip out the top two bolts in this picture and the bottom left one. I stopped and re-thought this approach.

PB Blaster, heat, impact driver, and a little muscle allowed me to remove the remaining non-stripped bolts.

Below is the manual impact driver and torx impact bits that I picked up from Northern Tools for only $20 total. Sears sold their impact driver alone for $25. The set I purchased might be a little lower quality, but it still did the job.

The pictures below are a little out of order but it gives you an idea of how I got the bolts out.

I started by soaking all the bolts with PB Blaster. That stuff works great. I then took put a torch to the bolt until it was red hot.

I then took the impact driver and smacked it with a hammer on the bolt a few times. (I forgot to get a picture of that.) After that, all I had to do is apply some pressure to the bolt with the ratchet and it came right off!!!

Now that I was able to remove all of the non-stripped bolts I had to return back to the stripped out bolts and figure out a way to remove them. I went back to Northern Tool and asked them to sell me a good quality easyout.

I drilled a hole in the center of the stripped bolt, then tried to use the easyout to remove the bolt. NO LUCK. Worse case senario happened. I snapped the easyout inside the bolt. Because I don't like to learn from my mistakes I tried it again on another bolt with a bigger easyout and did the same damn thing. So now I have two stripped out bolts with easyouts stuck inside them.

I took this picture after I broke the first easyout. Northern Tool also allowed me to return these crap easyouts.

After a couple days of cussing and researching I was unable to figure out what to do with the two bolts with broken easyouts in them. I tried everything I could think of to remove the broken easyouts with the tools I have, but had no luck. I decided to move to the third stripped bolt in hopes that I could get this one out which would allow me to still remove the windshield.

Third times a charm. I GOT THE THIRD BOLT OUT!!!

I drilled a nice even deep hole into the bolt. Then put the torch to the bolt until it was nice and hot. I used a craftsman screw remover, which I forgot I had in my tool box, and hooked it up to my drill.

I could not believe it. I pulled the trigger on the drill and the bolt came right out.

Since the two bolts that I was not able to remove were both attached to the windshield and not the body, I was able to remove the windshield. Notice the bracket still attached to the drivers side of the windshield. I guess I will just worry about that later. The only other thing keeping the windshield attached was the wiring for the wiper motor.

Here is a shot of the wiper motor, attached to the drivers side of the windshield.

The wire was just attached by a plug, which I was able to easily get to below the dash.

Here are a couple shots of the windshield. The bracket that I could not get off allowed me to stand this up by itself. (I'm just trying to look at the positive side of it!!)

The VIN# is located on the wiper motor mount. That mount will be easy to save.

Here is a picture of the windshield removed.

Here is where the bracket was before I removed it. Bad rust issues.

Passenger side before I removed that bracket, which I saved.

The windshield made a nice addition to the pile of parts I started accumulating. I put the license plate in the corner so that I can remind myself what all this crap is.

I removed the dash. This dash is still in decent shape. I might be able to reuse it if I can find a way to fix the fading color. I'm assuming paint or some kind of stain would solve that.