After market front bumper re install difficulties

WAYALIFE,

I’ve been jeeping now for about 4 months and today I removed my front bumper for the first time to install my new J.W. speaker fog lights. The bumper is some full width Chinese front bumper that came with the Jeep I can’t even find the brand but regardless I cannot slide the 8 bolts and bumper back into the frame horns. The housing in the bumper where the bolts feed through wiggle around a lot so when I try and slide it on they end up misaligned.

The bumper plus winch have to weigh nearly 150 pounds I was thinking about taking the winch off but I don’t think I could get it back on if I removed it. It’s another made in China product that came with the Jeep at the time of purchase and the housing for the bolts are rusted to shit. Would greasing the frame horn and bolts help or make matters worse?

If anyone has any suggestions, advice, or any tips that have worked for them on a similar issue it would be a huge help!

Cheers,
Bigmase33


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Without any pics, it'd be hard for me to say with any real idea as to what problems you might be facing. That being said, I can't possibly imagine how you could install ANY bumper with a winch mounted to it. More than likely, you'll need to remove the winch, do a partial install of the bumper and then add the winch.

Thanks for the reply Eddie here is an example of one of the bolts you can see the little bit of day light the bolt can move freely back and forth in the space, loved the New Years kick off video btw can’t wait to see more adventures in 2019!


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Sounds like you need an extra set of hands to get in there with the bolts while you hold it up. Or maybe a 2x4 and floor jack to hold it while you adjust.

My girlfriend tried helping but we can’t seem to line anything up we used a bench to rest it on and only had to lift it up a foot or so. The bolts just won’t align with the frame horn holes


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bigmase33 said:

My girlfriend tried helping but we can’t seem to line anything up we used a bench to rest it on and only had to lift it up a foot or so. The bolts just won’t align with the frame horn holes


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Click to expand...

Open the holes up a bit. Some are smaller than the others. That’s where I would start.


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wayoflife said:

Without any pics, it'd be hard for me to say with any real idea as to what problems you might be facing. That being said, I can't possibly imagine how you could install ANY bumper with a winch mounted to it. More than likely, you'll need to remove the winch, do a partial install of the bumper and then add the winch.

Click to expand...

It's been awhile but I think when I installed my LOD bumper I had to install winch to the bumper first. Or maybe just easier. But with my son's help it was pretty easy being everything lined up. Maybe OP could use ironworker alignment tool. (Bull pin) or whatever they're called.

Thanks for the responses guys ill try a few things out.

The ones I’ve done with the winch installed I supported the bumper with blocks of wood and a floor jack to get it just right. Deadblow hammers help with the fine tuning from there


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Update, ended up saving my back and took the winch off which had to weigh more than the bumper itself. Ended up selling the rough country winch on face book for 200 which I almost broke even on my new fog lights!


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