Busted Battery hold down bolt rusted in place and broken (fixed)

[ozindfw]

I was afraid this would happen, so I did my best to soak everything in liquid wrench and let it set for a few hours - in vain.

This is on a Mercury Monterey Min Van (aka Ford Freestar) Battery is clamped into the tray with a tab on the base in the back and a wedge block in the front. The block hold down bolt is rusted into what looks a nut plate that snaps in a slot in the front of the battery tray which is some sort of structural plastic.

It looks like Dorman offers a kit of bolts and a hold down block as Dorman 00588.

My problem is getting the old bolt out so I can fab a replacement nut plate. The trick is doing this without damaging the plastic battery tray. I’m guessing the bolt is maybe an M5.

I tried to figure out how to get the battery box out, and I can’t see how it’s held in place. If anyone can offer hints I’d appreciate it. It ;looks like I have to pull a bunch of other stuff to get to it.

[TLAR]

That style battery box is easy to remove on that - should have a few 8mm or 10mm (drive size) fasteners in the bottom on the box usually covered by debris and one or two more along the lower egde - if memory serves it also slides up under the inner fender.

[ozindfw]

I pulled the two on top and nothing moved. I’ll have to jack it up and look underneath. Thanks.

[ozindfw]

I know this is a long shot, but is this nut plate a purchaseable part somewhere? I’ve not spotted it. It’s an M6 x 1.0 thread

I got the battery box out, and was able to release the rusted nut plate, I couldn’t get the rusted bolt out, so I drilled it and cleaned the rust off it with the hope of reusing it. I still can’t pick the parts of the old bolt out of the threads and even a few hours of electrocleaning didn’t release the stuff stuck in the threads. I could not seem to get an M6 tap lined up well enough to do anything useful, and the material is pretty hard (Shocker!)

I was not quite perfectly centered drilling the bolt out and stripped the thread off a 90 degree or so arc of the part. I think there are still plenty for the application if I could get the others clean but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

My plan at this point is to drill the plate out and insert a stainless rivnut in the plate and then re use the assembly.

Any comments or suggestions?

[ozindfw]

And a soon a I posted, my search fu returned, it’s Ford W711591-S439. Now to see if anyone local stocks it.

[cdeyong2117]

I think your best answer to get it locally is to take this compatibility chart (2007-2023 Ford Battery Tray Nut W711591-S439 | TascaParts.com) and go grab it from a pick-n-pull!

[ozindfw]

Yup, just got off the phone with Five Star Ford in NRH. They have one and I’m off to get it.

[ozindfw]

Part acquired and installed, along with battery and everything else. I also used a generous application of anti-seize in a likely vain attempt to limit reoccurrence.