Tail light scews/nuts stripped?

[Stainless]

I found something interesting while working on my car: over half of the tail light screws were missing. I ordered some replacements and found that the square nuts that are imbedded into the rear fascia are stripped out. The PO must have overtightened them or something, causing them to strip the threads on the nuts so there's nothing for the screws to grip.

Anyone else have this problem? The tail light isn't going to fall off or anything, but I'd prefer to have more screws holding them in place. Thanks.

[Notifier]

I had the same problem, I had only 7 screws total holding the rear taillights in place. And out of the 7 I think there were three different sizes! Ordered replacements and got all but 1 to go in - right side, upper left didn't want to go in all the way, seemed like someone cross threaded it along the way. Did get one of the older shorter screws to work.

One thing I noticed is that some of the screws didn't go in a straight 90 degree, a couple were going in at a slight angle but did go in all the way. Think I played around with this a couple of times before I realized what was going on. I would first check with the tail lights off all your square nuts to see which ones truly are cross threaded. Maybe some of those just need to be angled a little to get them to thread.

[Farrar]

You could possibly remove the rear fascia and then epoxy new nuts on the back.

Farrar

[Ron]

I've found that the crooked ones are usually because the nuts were striped or cross-threaded and they just ran a screw in next to the nut. :swear1:

Another option:
I don't remember the size, but ACE Hardware sells a larger dia stainless screw that is small enough to fit the lens but still allow rethreading the nuts. I do remember they were not metric.

As with most things, it is best to start all of the screws before tightening any.

[sean]

I'd either go with a larger coarse screw and go right into the fascia or epoxy a retaining strip with anchors. The latter is probably best.

[outatym2001]

The PO must have overtightened them or something, causing them to strip the threads on the nuts so there's nothing for the screws to grip.

Anyone else have this problem? The tail light isn't going to fall off or anything, but I'd prefer to have more screws holding them in place. Thanks.

I asked Toby Peterson of DMC Northwest and he said to contact him if you would like to buy Jack Nuts of the proper size for your rear light assemblies.
A Jack Nut looks like one of those drywall insert things with a threaded center where first you drill a hole in the wall then insert the Jack Nut and… oh just watch the video.
Installation of “Jack Nuts”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcXXx1cxWU


DMC Northwest, Bellevue, Washington.
(425) 451-7000
OH MAN! I call Toby so many times for DeLorean parts I know his phone number without having to look it up.

[DeloreanJoshQ]

I ran into the same problem yesterday with my tail lights, I had several that would not back out. I was told that the earlier car's tail lights were screwed in with the wrong size/type screws, a more coarse thread and design like drywall screws(this is what my car had). The later cars had the correct machine type screws installed that worked with the intended threads.

I am now looking for black or stainless(and paint the heads black) screws that will work.

[Jimmyvonviggle]

I had a total of 3 screws holding two tail lights on the car. I found that home depot sells ss machine screws (not sure either a size 6 or 8) that fit the original catches.

Why a smily face appears above instead of 8 I don't know.

[dvonk]

Why a smily face appears above instead of 8 I don't know.

you need to put a character (e.g., a period, a space, etc.) inbetween the "8" and the close parenthesis otherwise it will default to the smiley.