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There have been plenty of warnings and people asking for help when the captive nut insert bracket that holds the tailgate hinge bolts falls into the tailgate, but actual solutions and pictures have been light. I've just been through the gauntlet with this, so I figured I'd share my results and findings for others because this seems to be fairly common. Hopefully this becomes searchable, so hello from 2025, future frustrated Bronco owners.
TL;DR: Get longer bolts screwed into the nut insert, use them to FLEX the bar back onto hooks that hold it in place. Take tailgate off and place face down if you can't get the nut insert oriented right.
More:
The Problem: I've had a Hammerbuilt tailgate reinforcement for a few years. It initially solved some of my noisy tailgate issues, but since moving up to 35s it was getting noisy again, so I decided to go troubleshooting. I took it all off again and applied sound deadening, foam tape, etc and readjusted everything. When putting it all back together, I was using an impact wrench to tighten the hinge bolts back up with one hand while holding up the Hammerbuilt plate with the other hand (major error). I obviously applied too much pressure because the captive nut insert came off its hooks and fell inside the tailgate. #%$%#.
I spent the rest of the night fishing around through the bolt holes trying to get the bracket back on the hooks. I was able to get the bolts screwed into the holes to better maneuver the bar, but I could not get both sides flush. I could get one side or the other, but not both. I couldnt figure it out.
I read on this forum that someone else took it to a body shop and they were able to get it, so the next day I took it to a body shop. The manager's wife had a bronco so he was really interested in it and spent an hour with it, but he couldn't get it. He recommended I take it to the dealership.
I took it to the dealership the day after that and a tech there spent an hour with it and couldnt figure it out. It was the end of the day on a Friday, so he said to bring it back on Monday. I brought it on Monday and they spent the week with it. By Friday I hadnt heard anything from them, so I went over to the dealership and picked it up. They couldnt get it (not sure how hard they tried) and didnt charge me anything for it, but suggested another body shop to bring it to. The next day I brought it to THAT body shop and they didnt want to try. They just suggested I bring it by the following monday for a quote on a new tailgate. I went the following monday to get that quote and it came out to $2500. Yikes.
I decided to keep trying. I found a beat up dented tailgate on ebay in my same Oxford White. So I bought it and drove up to LA to pick it up. I brought it back to the body shop to see what it would cost to use that one, but they didnt want to touch it (even after I explained the tailgate reinforcement wouldnt cover up most of the dents so they didnt really need to do a lot of body work). Between the two body shops, I had the impression that they really just wanted that sweet insurance money and weren't interested in cash paying customers with niche issues.
Dented tailgate donor:
So I decided to spend more garage time. I bought a Milwaukee m12 borescope camera, a whole bunch of long needle nose pliers off amazon, and long M8 bolts. Using the boroscope, I first went into the dented tailgate to photograph what right looked like:
Then on my original tailgate, to get access for the borescope, I removed the vents on my using the JCR tailgate table instructions:
Then after removing the nvh fabric filler, I could get access to take a picture of what the problem was:
I could see that the bar was bent. So using the borescope camera, i used some craftsman hook tools to re-orient the bar so that the screw holes on the bar were lined up with the tailgate openings so that i could thread the long M8 bolts into the holes to maneuver the bar. After a lot of effort, I got both in there and could maneuver the bar. I could see through the camera that the bar was bent, as well as the hook. I could feel some flex in the bar, so I figured it being bent was how it came off in the first place. So i began twisting the bar inward and outward while pulling against the tailgate and VOILA! I felt it snap into place:
I began trying to reinstall the Hammerbuilt plate back on, but the nut insert fell back inside during that process. #%^$^. Well at this point I was down the rabbit hole and I really wanted to make sure I definitively never had to do this again. Hours of bronco6g searching led me to buy the Turn Offroad Tailgate Reinforcement. That came like 2 days later (fast shipping!).
Then I tried again, but this time, as part of the Turn Offroad Install Process, I took the tailgate off and laid it flat face down on some saw horses. That made it SUPER EASY to get the plate lined up again. Highly recommend you do that if you're having problems %#^$-ing around through those tiny holes. Then I installed the tailgate reinforcement directly onto the tailgate with it still off the truck (different than the Turn Offroad Install video). Getting the heavy tailgate + reinforcement plate onto the Turn hinges was not jiving, so I eventually removed the hinges and mounted the hinges to the tailgate as well, then used the saw horses to hold up the whole tailgate while I bolted up the whole assembly to the bronco. I was doing this by myself, but I defintiely was not going to continue messing with nut insert while right side up. I got it all bolted up and the tailgate was aligned perfectly! Really impressed with the Turn system.
So thats my saga. Hope this helps you, Bronco owner from the future. If anyone in 2025 wants a used Hammerbuilt tailgate reinforcement, or a dented oxford white tailgate, I got them for sale.
@Ford Motor Company this is a terrible design. I want you to think about what you've done.
TL;DR: Get longer bolts screwed into the nut insert, use them to FLEX the bar back onto hooks that hold it in place. Take tailgate off and place face down if you can't get the nut insert oriented right.
More:
The Problem: I've had a Hammerbuilt tailgate reinforcement for a few years. It initially solved some of my noisy tailgate issues, but since moving up to 35s it was getting noisy again, so I decided to go troubleshooting. I took it all off again and applied sound deadening, foam tape, etc and readjusted everything. When putting it all back together, I was using an impact wrench to tighten the hinge bolts back up with one hand while holding up the Hammerbuilt plate with the other hand (major error). I obviously applied too much pressure because the captive nut insert came off its hooks and fell inside the tailgate. #%$%#.
I spent the rest of the night fishing around through the bolt holes trying to get the bracket back on the hooks. I was able to get the bolts screwed into the holes to better maneuver the bar, but I could not get both sides flush. I could get one side or the other, but not both. I couldnt figure it out.
I read on this forum that someone else took it to a body shop and they were able to get it, so the next day I took it to a body shop. The manager's wife had a bronco so he was really interested in it and spent an hour with it, but he couldn't get it. He recommended I take it to the dealership.
I took it to the dealership the day after that and a tech there spent an hour with it and couldnt figure it out. It was the end of the day on a Friday, so he said to bring it back on Monday. I brought it on Monday and they spent the week with it. By Friday I hadnt heard anything from them, so I went over to the dealership and picked it up. They couldnt get it (not sure how hard they tried) and didnt charge me anything for it, but suggested another body shop to bring it to. The next day I brought it to THAT body shop and they didnt want to try. They just suggested I bring it by the following monday for a quote on a new tailgate. I went the following monday to get that quote and it came out to $2500. Yikes.
I decided to keep trying. I found a beat up dented tailgate on ebay in my same Oxford White. So I bought it and drove up to LA to pick it up. I brought it back to the body shop to see what it would cost to use that one, but they didnt want to touch it (even after I explained the tailgate reinforcement wouldnt cover up most of the dents so they didnt really need to do a lot of body work). Between the two body shops, I had the impression that they really just wanted that sweet insurance money and weren't interested in cash paying customers with niche issues.
Dented tailgate donor:
So I decided to spend more garage time. I bought a Milwaukee m12 borescope camera, a whole bunch of long needle nose pliers off amazon, and long M8 bolts. Using the boroscope, I first went into the dented tailgate to photograph what right looked like:
Then on my original tailgate, to get access for the borescope, I removed the vents on my using the JCR tailgate table instructions:
Then after removing the nvh fabric filler, I could get access to take a picture of what the problem was:
I could see that the bar was bent. So using the borescope camera, i used some craftsman hook tools to re-orient the bar so that the screw holes on the bar were lined up with the tailgate openings so that i could thread the long M8 bolts into the holes to maneuver the bar. After a lot of effort, I got both in there and could maneuver the bar. I could see through the camera that the bar was bent, as well as the hook. I could feel some flex in the bar, so I figured it being bent was how it came off in the first place. So i began twisting the bar inward and outward while pulling against the tailgate and VOILA! I felt it snap into place:
I began trying to reinstall the Hammerbuilt plate back on, but the nut insert fell back inside during that process. #%^$^. Well at this point I was down the rabbit hole and I really wanted to make sure I definitively never had to do this again. Hours of bronco6g searching led me to buy the Turn Offroad Tailgate Reinforcement. That came like 2 days later (fast shipping!).
Then I tried again, but this time, as part of the Turn Offroad Install Process, I took the tailgate off and laid it flat face down on some saw horses. That made it SUPER EASY to get the plate lined up again. Highly recommend you do that if you're having problems %#^$-ing around through those tiny holes. Then I installed the tailgate reinforcement directly onto the tailgate with it still off the truck (different than the Turn Offroad Install video). Getting the heavy tailgate + reinforcement plate onto the Turn hinges was not jiving, so I eventually removed the hinges and mounted the hinges to the tailgate as well, then used the saw horses to hold up the whole tailgate while I bolted up the whole assembly to the bronco. I was doing this by myself, but I defintiely was not going to continue messing with nut insert while right side up. I got it all bolted up and the tailgate was aligned perfectly! Really impressed with the Turn system.
So thats my saga. Hope this helps you, Bronco owner from the future. If anyone in 2025 wants a used Hammerbuilt tailgate reinforcement, or a dented oxford white tailgate, I got them for sale.
@Ford Motor Company this is a terrible design. I want you to think about what you've done.
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