ARB summit install... Do I have the wrong parts here?

[breaddrink]

If anyone who's done this install can help me out I'd be really appreciative. You may be able to verify I have the wrong part, or I'm just not seeing how this installs...

Background: Started on the install this Saturday. (Today) On a Badlands Sasquatch lux.

Difficult instructions and dark black and white instructions... Tricky.
Bumper is off, looms removed, lengthened, in the case of the ACC, and camera removed.

I've gotten stuck at the part where you assemble the chassis mounting brackets onto the intercooler mount bolt area.
The instructions state that the brackets should have the straight edge facing inwards on both sides, and that they are not a symmetrical bracket.

Both of my angled brackets are identical, so if I align them with both straight sides facing in, one is vastly angled in the wrong direction.

I'll upload some pictures to hopefully shine some light on what I'm looking at, but did they just give me two of the same side by mistake? Or am I being an idiot here?

The pic of the manual states the orientation of the brackets needed, and hopefully my pictures show how that isn't possible, and how they're symmetrical to one another.

Just to note, it feels like the car is all but disabled at this point, and I have work on Monday

A part of me recalls reading someone mentioning not being able to use all the bolts, as the top intercooler OE bolt to be reused is so close to the underside of the engine bay on the driver's side, that there's nearly not enough room to even remove the bolt, let alone put another washer in there, then a bracket, and then the OE bolt on top. There is no space.

Seriously... It barely came out. Even replacing the OE top intercooler bolt without it going through the bracket may be a serious problem on the drivers side.Past this point, I have to drill these brackets in place, and as is, is extremely difficult to verify they're going to align to the bumper.

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[LewyOnMars]

Looks like they sent the wrong bracket... But I can't recall what mine were like (it's been almost a year). If you put it in where both brackets are angled up (I think they have to be to connect right with the other parts?) does it work?

With my bumper they shipped the wrong frame bolts (I think they're 110mm? They shipped 90mm... We tried all kinds of ways to make those fit before we measured them and realized they were the wrong length)

 

[breaddrink]

Looks like they sent the wrong bracket... But I can't recall what mine were like (it's been almost a year). If you put it in where both brackets are angled up (I think they have to be to connect right with the other parts?) does it work?

With my bumper they shipped the wrong frame bolts (I think they're 110mm? They shipped 90mm... We tried all kinds of ways to make those fit before we measured them and realized they were the wrong length)

The question "does it work?" is hard to tell right now. I'm really stuck on this part.
They can't angle down. The tolerances in there wouldn't allow the bracket to face down.

To say the upper intercooler mounting bolts are tight to work on in there is an understatement. The drivers side is virtually impossible to remove, let alone return it back after you add both a mounting bracket, and a spacer washer under it. There isn't room.

There seems to be no way to free up any more room around the area.

This has left me with the brackets assembled as best as I can, even though they don't match the install instructions, around the front frame where the bumper attaches, but no way to return the upper intercooler bolts.
The brackets are all slotted where the bolts are meant to sit, and without those intercooler bolts back in place, trying to tighten the brackets with the crush tube in place without them holding it in place results in the whoe bracket sliding out out of it's groove as you try to tighten to 44 NM.

A washer on the outside over the slot would solve the nut squashing it's way to the side in the slot, but it specifically says to put the washer under the bracket and not under the locking nut...

I'm literally wondering if it's just me, or if this is a crazy rough install and I just need to make it good?

I'm not sure I've heard a single negative about the install, and certainly nothing about those intercooler bolts that I can't return to make the bracket work. (The bracket that seems like it could possibly be wrong).

Rough day... And I'm not sure now to continue unless I can find someone who can recall their install to maybe tell me how they solved this. We spent 4 or 5 hours just going over and over this... Wondering if we should cut those intercooler bolts down to make them possible to use... If the hardware is somehow misplaced. If the Bronco, being a 23 has some insignificant change that has that space with the intercooler even harder to get to. I think the packing date on the bumper said early 2022.

I'm thinking the least destructive way ahead, is to place washers over the brackets, under the nut to allow them to tighten down, but the top intercooler bolts... There's no way to return them if I don't cut them down. I'm not sure how safe it might be without them.

 

[LewyOnMars]

It took me two and a half days with help to get the bumper installed. It's a pain. I remember those brackets being a pain. I remember thinking they weren't quite long enough...

What I think we ended up doing was not putting a washer over them, but leaving the bolt a little loose, then waiting into it had been hooked to the other brackets and pulled forward before going back to try and tighten that bolt down. It was painful.. and yeah those two pieces had us scratching our heads for a couple hours.. and even after we weren't sure if we'd screwed something up.

Then yeah, the crush tube thing where we had the wrong bolts.

Also, just plan to use all the spacers when you're mounting the bumper.

The only other hell bit was trying to get the winch tightened down.. if I renew right we had to have the winch in the bumper but not tightened town when we were mounting the bumper because we couldn't reach all the mounting bolts for the bumper with the winch in the way.. and would have to try and slide it a little... Then finally try and tighten it back up after the bumper was secure.

It's a truly painful install.

 

[Diller]

It's a difficult install for sure. Took myself, and my Ford tech son, about 8 hours. Couple of observations.
1. The M10x110mm bolts that came with my kit were not 110mm and wouldn't reach. I had to run out for longer bolts.
2. You need a flex head ratcheting wrench for the intercooler bolts. See the picture I attached.

 

[Lcubed]

IIRC, there’s a color pdf version of the installation instructions here at b6g.
It’s straight from ARB and much clearer than b&k paper version

I’ve got a copy saved off at my laptop at home

 

[Searchdawg]

IIRC, there’s a color pdf version of the installation instructions here at b6g.
It’s straight from ARB and much clearer than b&k paper version

I’ve got a copy saved off at my laptop at home

Can you provide a link for the color pdf version please?

 

[Lcubed]

Can you provide a link for the color pdf version please?

A quick search here yields

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/arb-rear-bumper-install-instructions-pdf.80012/

 

[Searchdawg]

A quick search here yields

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/arb-rear-bumper-install-instructions-pdf.80012/

Thanks, but that was for the rear bumper, not the Summit front bumper. I’ll attempt a search. Again, thanks for trying.

 

[Searchdawg]

A quick search here yields

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/arb-rear-bumper-install-instructions-pdf.80012/

Found it…https://store.arbusa.com/content/3480010_Fitting Instructions.pdf

 

[breaddrink]

It's a difficult install for sure. Took myself, and my Ford tech son, about 8 hours. Couple of observations.
1. The M10x110mm bolts that came with my kit were not 110mm and wouldn't reach. I had to run out for longer bolts.
2. You need a flex head ratcheting wrench for the intercooler bolts. See the picture I attached.

Are yours gearhead? I have the same set *edit* Oh, I see the icon logo on it now.

Yes, this is what we used... There was so little room, and what with the ratchet only going one way on my set, the bolt couldn't be completely removed above the intercooler, because it would trap the wrench there. (Should have bought the expensive set.)

I don't know if we have the same bolt, but they're the special fastener type where the washer is integrated and remains at the very top by the head of the bolt. Which means you can't slide the wrench down once the bolt is free. It also means if you take it all the way with a one way enclosed ratchet, it gets stuck.

May I ask what year your Bronco is? I'm wondering if there could be some kind of variable here on the clearance. I got mine late 23.

After completely loosening that bolt, I couldn't even turn it over to one side to get it out of the hole. Lots of 'uhh, is it actually out?' *wiggle wiggle*' because it was completely jammed up against metal above it.

Eventually we removed it by crow-baring a tiny amount of extra headroom somehow...
Leaving me knowing there's no way possible I can then get that bolt back in over a bracket, and a 6MM pack washer, and quite honestly maybe not back in at all even without it.

Cut to today. I've bought some bolts of the M10 1.5 thread, only 1cm shorter. It's absolutely pouring rain today in Washington, but I'll see if I can get to trying to fit them.

This still leaves me with the likely misplaced bracket.
I've messaged ARB with some pictures,. I think this could go on for some time.
Already planning to car share on Monday.

 

[breaddrink]

Found it…https://store.arbusa.com/content/3480010_Fitting Instructions.pdf

Yeah, that's the same manual I have. I printed out the color pages where it mentions wire coloring.

 

[breaddrink]

It took me two and a half days with help to get the bumper installed. It's a pain. I remember those brackets being a pain. I remember thinking they weren't quite long enough...

What I think we ended up doing was not putting a washer over them, but leaving the bolt a little loose, then waiting into it had been hooked to the other brackets and pulled forward before going back to try and tighten that bolt down. It was painful.. and yeah those two pieces had us scratching our heads for a couple hours.. and even after we weren't sure if we'd screwed something up.

Then yeah, the crush tube thing where we had the wrong bolts.

Also, just plan to use all the spacers when you're mounting the bumper.

The only other hell bit was trying to get the winch tightened down.. if I renew right we had to have the winch in the bumper but not tightened town when we were mounting the bumper because we couldn't reach all the mounting bolts for the bumper with the winch in the way.. and would have to try and slide it a little... Then finally try and tighten it back up after the bumper was secure.

It's a truly painful install.

Many thanks, Lewy.

It helps to just hear that others may have seen similar, and how finicky they were with making it good.
There's that problem when installing your own stuff where sometimes it's hard to know how good enough is good enough.

I can half ass everything and drill the brackets out, but when things get strange you start to wonder if it's you, or the hardware.

I messaged ARB with the picture showing the brackets being the same on both sides.
I have some Amazon express bolts arriving for the top intercooler today, to see if I can bolt that up. I don't think I can use the OE ones, at least not on the driver's side, and when they're secured, I'll see how the holes line up on the bracket to allow the bumper to be held.

Thankful to know I got the right size bolts for the crush tube at least.

Good call on using the bumper itself to cinch it all up. I wondered that too... There was room to get in there to tighten the brackets after the bumper is in place?

 

[LewyOnMars]

Good call on using the bumper itself to cinch it all up. I wondered that too... There was room to get in there to tighten the brackets after the bumper is in place?

actually, we just bolted up all those brackets in advance to pull things tight (..as if we were mounting the bumper.. just without the bumper).. then unbolted what we had to, for actually mounting the bumper, after we got those top brackets snug ... Room is consistently lacking

 

[breaddrink]

actually, we just bolted up all those brackets in advance to pull things tight (..as if we were mounting the bumper.. just without the bumper).. then unbolted what we had to, for actually mounting the bumper, after we got those top brackets snug ... Room is consistently lacking

I managed to get through to ARB today, and they're sending me a new bracket.

I'll have another shot at it with those, and possibly my shorter bolts.

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