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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
I have a westin grill gaurd. The lower frame brackets are too short. I called them & they are no help. They say all the installs are the same, & no other pieces are required. Any one who has installed this on a 91-94 please help if you can.
thanks
I have the same problem. I purchased mine about 3 weeks ago and still have not installed it because of this.
I'm not very impressed. Supposedly all of the install hardware should be there. The shop I bought it from said they would install it, but I don't trust them. They said they would just rebend the bracket so that it would fit and then drill a hole in the frame. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I had already looked at that option. If you did do that, the hole in the frame would end up in a location that there is no way you could get a wrench in there to hold the nut because the frame is all boxed in.
My plan when I get some time is to build my own bracket...get a thicker piece of steel that is longer and bend it so that it lays flat against the back of the air dam and flat on the frame (a few inches from the front, the frame curves up at the front). Then, I will probably cut a vertical rib to fill in the tapered gap between my flat piece and the frame rail. I will take the flat piece all the way back on the frame where there is a fairly large triangular cut out (used during the frame making process to relieve the stress and excess material where the frame is bent). This cut out looks like it's large enough to be able to install a nut and get a wrench on it. That's where I'll drill a hole in the new bracket and the frame.
I haven't planned it out that carefully yet. These are just some initial thoughts. I'll probably get started on it first part of next week.
Did you bolt the bumper clips loosely on the top and hang the guard on the bumper? I did. I had the bolts barely screwed into the clips. The left side fit fairly flat against the air dam, but the right side was up off the air dam by about 1.5". The more I tightened the bolt on the clip, the worse it got. When I tried to force it back down, the top clip tried to bend the top of the bumper up. I don't know how that will work. Maybe you have to secure it tight on the bottom brackets and let the top brackets float a little. In that case, I would use red lock tight to make sure the bolts didn't come loose.
What are your thoughts. I even talked to an engineer at Westin and he was no help. He said the shops make them work.
Mine was the same I hung it from the top clips with very little thread in them and managed to get it in the bottom , longer bolts might be an option.I dont have my air dam on now dont know if that made any difference. I guess it will stay that way as I will have to make new brackets when the body lift goes on. Oh yah the more you tighten the bottom bolts the more the end corners of your bumper will curl up. good luck
I didn't have those problems. The top brackets seem to fiit good on mine. It's just the frame brackets. I also tried to bend it up to the frame, & even drilled a hole. Problem is where the hole was drilled, in the frame is the bolt to hold the bumper on. So it will not fit there. For now, It's tighten on the airdam, It's not going anywhere, but I do need to get it secured at the frame somehow. A friend who is great at making things work is going to look at it this weekend. I also got dofferent L brackets, But they are not wide enought for the hole that needs to be drilled to fit the bolt. See what happens??
