Rear bumper adjustment

[Arthur]

This weekend I got stuck in the mud and when I got pulled out the tension from the chain forced my rear bumper to point up a little bit. I need to get it to be level again.

I tried loosening up the bolts that attach the bumper to the frame and it still wouldn't budge. In this picture you can see how the bumper is tilted.

 

[Darrman]

Well I havent done the rear one, but I did adjust the front bumper on mine, by loosening the bolts and lining it back up.
If you have loosened the bolts and it still wont move, you may have bent the brackets. If I remember right Ford issued a recall for the rear brackets, yours may be the originals.
Next step may be to completly remove the bumper and see if the brackets are bent. Maybe its just rust or something that wont let you move it around.
You shoud try it on the front bumper, I see yours is bent down. Thats how mine was till I fixed it.

 

[Arthur]

Darrman that was the most usefull info ever haha! no seriously thankyou... if there is a recall can i just go get it for free from the ford dealership... i mean its been about 14 years since my explorer was made so it seems unlikely... but that would be great if they gave me stronger ones

 

[Arthur]

bumpin this one back up

 

[pope_face]

Hahaha... I think you should leave it... it gives you some nice symmetry with the front bumper...

 

[Anime]

If it just needs to be adjusted, usually loosening the bumper-to-frame bolts, and standing/jumping on the bumper will put it back into place. If it won't go back no matter how hard you try, the brackets might have bent.

Your best bet is probably to remove the bumper to check things out if you can't tell if the brackets are bent by just looking at it from under the truck. Once you see what the brackets look like, you can probably get a better idea of what to do to straighten the bumper back up. It can be a little tricky to line up since you have to keep the bolts loose while putting it back on and only tighten them once the bumper is in position, but once you do it, it's pretty easy. If they bent and you can't get free replacements from the dealer (if you do, let us know, I'll go get some too ) , you can probably just get used ones cheap at a salvage yard or from someone on here who replaced their stock rear bumper.

 

[smegun]

tell us how you corrected your bumpers I got the same front dip in mine (identicle )
I havnt found a real problem areas concerning rust on my exp but under the radiator and the rear bumper is rusting through might be good to pull it off totally
and give it a shellacking im not shure I agree with ford on the concept of this front defensive system so im curiouse as to the type of steel here as in spring or hammared

 

[awood]

Well, the original post was over six years ago, so I don't think you'd find much more help.

However, I just purchased a 94 that had been rear-ended. The bumper was bent down to where the trailer ball was almost horizontal. A trip to the junk yard, 4 bolts, and $25 later - I had a straight bumper.