Roof Rack Removal

[CaptKirk]

I have removed my cross bars and it looks so much better! But, it left little nubs sticking up where the bar attaches. I want to leave my rails on incase I need the rack some day. But, how do I romeve the part that slides inside the rail?
THanks for any help!

 

[Billy177]

the little loop things you just unscrew them

 

[CaptKirk]

Thanks, I will take them off. But, what about the pointy things that the cross bars attach too. Can they be removed?

 

[EBInterceptor]

You should be able to unscrew the end caps, there will be one screw and the ends pull out. Then just as if you were adjusting the rails, you slide them right off the ends.

 

[MONMIX]

The outter rails come off easily with a large phillips screwdriver.
Pull the rails off and put the screws back in the holes.
They will not leak.
The center strips are rivited on, that is another story.
I would remove the outters. It looks MUCH better that way.

 

[CaptKirk]

Thanks! I didn't think of removing the outer rail. I just removed the cross bars and took the end caps off to slide the hardware out of the rail. Looks much cleaner now. May have to try taking the outer rails off also. But, I had a heck of a time getting the screws to come loose to get the end caps off.

 

[Tim94111]

I've been trying to get those end caps off too. Was able to get the left rear one off, but the right side is impossible. Screw must be rusted in there. I've managed to do a pretty good job of stripping the head, but it will wiggle a tiny bit. I don't know what to do. I thought I'd get the right front end cap off but that screw will not move AT ALL.

I'm trying to slide in towers for a Yakima rack to carry a cargo box. Maybe I'll be stuck using the factory crossbars, but those are pretty flimsey compared to the Yakima crossbars. I guess I could cut off the end cap and refasten it with a pop rivit or something.

Any suggestions?

 

[CaptKirk]

Funny you said that. I got one side off without a problem. The other side I used a srew driver to gently pry the end cap away from the rail a little bit so I could get in there with a razor knife and cut it off. I did this on the front rail end cap. And I was able to slide it back on and it is snug enough that it hasn't gone anywhere yet!

 

[Tim94111]

Funny you said that. I got one side off without a problem. The other side I used a srew driver to gently pry the end cap away from the rail a little bit so I could get in there with a razor knife and cut it off. I did this on the front rail end cap. And I was able to slide it back on and it is snug enough that it hasn't gone anywhere yet!

Glad to hear you had success with that. That's probably what I'll end up doing. You'd think that because the caps are plastic, Ford would have made them so that they "click" into the rail somehow. Using the screw is a bit overkill. I was thinking of gently drilling out the stripped screw, but I'm sure I'll "screw" that up. Thanks for the support!

 

[EBInterceptor]

Have you tried removing the rear cap instead if the front's fncked up?

 

[Clyde K]

Hi Ya'll! Just finished removing the roof rack from my 94 Limited and you are right, it does look better w/o. I did have to drill the head off of one screw though. Now I just have to figure out a way to camouflage the remaining screws, but that will have to wait until spring.