Must the shoulder belt mount holes be tapped?

[robroy]

Hey Fordman! I see your points about the appearance not being that great; I'll have to experiment with it and see how it looks. I'll post some pics here.

Thanks!
-Robroy

[rjewkes]

My question on the third anchor has always been was ford getting ready for the 73-79's or was it for racing apps?

[FORDification]

No, it was specifically for the optional shoulder harness. We just hardly ever see a truck which actually had such a setup from the factory, since few people back then opted to have it installed.

[Doug Comer]

The tap set that I have lists 2 different drill sizes for each tap. One size is rated for a 60% thread and the smaller for 90% thread. I beleive from what I've been told that on a threaded hole most of the strength is in the fist couple of threads. Also when threading a hole threads only need to be as deep as your bolt diameter. I'm definately no engineer, just trying to share what I think. If you tap the hole it should be plenty strong enough. Just my . Doug

[robroy]

i didnt relized you could get your hand up in there.

Well as it turns out, you can get your hand up in there, but due to some braces nearby the hole on the inside of the cab body, there's no good way to put a fat/wide washer in there; it would hit the metal flanges/supports around in hole. Oh well!

Looks like I'll be tapping it, which I'm sure will work fine. I hope I never have to find out (whether the tapped threads are strong enough or not)!

Thanks!
-Robroy

[mk]

Regarding Robert's question 'was Ford getting ready for the '73-'79's' , from the start of '73 production until the beginning of '76 production there was no provision at all for shoulder belts
The '73-'75 brochures show seat belts as standard equipment and the '76 brochure changes to '3 point restraint'. Because of the heavy recycling of pics from previous years brochures, there's only a couple of pics in the '76 brochure that actually show the shoulder hookup.



mike