Fender liner sleeved nut loose?

So as I'm doing a tire rotation yesterday I noticed the fender liner retention bolt hanging down on the driver side. Grabbed it and it was loose and jiggly. Checked the passenger side and it's snugged up nice. Figured no problemo. Grabbed a 10mm ratchety wrench and proceeded to try and tighten it up. No go. Just spins. Nothing is ever that easy right? It can actually be slid in and out too...phrasing I know. I can't even remove it. Looks to be a sleeved 10mm w/ large flat washer surface built in. Anybody able to explain what it's supposed to be threaded onto and how I keep that from spinning? Can't get down to the top of whatever it seems to be threaded onto. Hopefully somebody has taken pictures of the other end. I found a pic of the 100mm sleeved nut job but can't find anything describing or showing the other end.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

That sounds like a "Nutsert". Basically it's a threaded pop rivet. You need something to hold the washer part down while a bolt is pulling up against the washer with the liner material in between so that the rivet will compress and lock. Not spin.

Tumbleweed said:

That sounds like a "Nutsert". Basically it's a threaded pop rivet. You need something to hold the washer part down while a bolt is pulling up against the washer with the liner material in between so that the rivet will compress and lock. Not spin.

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Pretty sure it's no nutsert. Are there any nutsert type connections on a stock JK? Only pic I can find of the bolt is on another forum so no linky. I imagine most people pulling their fender liners don't plan to put them back so there probably aren't going to be too many videos documenting the process that closely.

The threaded stud that the sleeved nut/bolt screws on to is held on by s maller bolt that you can get to from the engine bay. I think its a 8mm but not for sure. This is on the driver side. The passenger side if I remember is under the battery tray. Both sides you can run a ratchet in the top and hold the nut from under the fender and tighten them up.

and holy shit I just found the nut that I dropped from the hood strut

Evil said:

The threaded stud that the sleeved nut/bolt screws on to is held on by s maller bolt that you can get to from the engine bay. I think its a 8mm but not for sure. This is on the driver side. The passenger side if I remember is under the battery tray. Both sides you can run a ratchet in the top and hold the nut from under the fender and tighten them up.
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Ah perfect! Thanks. I'll dig into this weekend. When I quickly looked from up top I couldn't see down to it. Engine bay is so crowded. Looks like I might have to do some digging around and moving of a few things to get an extension down there.

Thanks for the pics too!

OK dug into this last night and sure enough the bolt wasn't all that hard to get to. 3/8 ratchet w/ 5" extension and 10mm socket up top to hold that top nut. Was a tight fit and the angle meant no long extension up top to ratchet with but worked fine to hold. Had to ratchet from below. When I got the lower nut off the first 3 turns of the thread were toast. Pretty much had to crank it on until it threaded itself tight. Hopefully it's not going to work itself loose again. If I ever have to remove it again the hardware will need to be changed but it should be good for now.

Thanks again Evil. Appreciate the pics!