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Mopar Bumper Install

ColoradoGlad

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The Fog lights you have pictured are the correct ones for the steel bumper.
You don't need any adapters. Uses 4 8mm bolts.
If you were using your plastic Non LED lights, you'd need the adapter for the steel bumper.

Take a search under my name.... I did the bumper swap awhile back and its very easy.
The only thing you need to buy extra are the 2 bottom brackets for the steel skid plate.
BTW, for 23 dollars you can get the wiring harness for the steel bumper.
This is must easier than swapping the harness from your old bumper.

Keep in mind you'll need a winch plate if adding a winch.
I used the Rock hard plate... Worked great...
 
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PyrPatriot

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Parts are on their way. 10 unique items, 40 bolts/screws/nutserts, 2 brackets, one wiring harness. Free shipping with a code from moparpartsonline.co
Order Content
Part NumberPart NamePriceQuantityTotal
68336460AD Wiring-Front Fascia $23.35 1 $23.35
68353836AB Skid Plate Mount Bracket $7.99 1 $7.99
68353837AB Skid Plate Mount Bracket $7.99 1 $7.99
6105098AA Genuine Alfa Romeo Screw Hex Head $3.89 5 $19.45
6104414AA Mopar Trans Support Bolt $2.07 5 $10.35
6511076AA Skid Plate Nut $2.07 5 $10.35
6105244AA Upper Cover U-Nut $1.15 5 $5.75
6512587AA Skid Plate Screw $0.86 5 $4.30
68355472AA Extension Screw $2.30 5 $11.50
6104568AA Tail Lamp Assembly Screw $0.98 5 $4.90
Subtotal: $105.93
Shipping (FedEx Ground ): $22.93
Promo discount: -$22.93
Total: $105.93

Now to order a winch and plate. Looks like the only su-$500 plate that doesnt require cutting or bending of it or the frame is the Maximus-3 plate. Going to have a Smittybilt X20 Gen2 winch with steel cable. So hopefully just $600 more and I will be set for the install.

Or do you fine folks have any other/updated suggestions? I have scoured here and th JL forums looking for plates
 

sass JT

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PyrPatriot

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Ok. So I finally installed everything. It took 6 hours with the help of a friend who works on his 4Runners. He is a mechanical engineer by trade, so I figured we'd be ok for a few hours. Nope.

I ended up getting a Smittybilt X20 10k winch with steel cable and a Rugged Ridge Spartacus winch plate. It's what was available local to me and the Maximus plate wasn't going to ship until next week


The breakdown:

Most of the parts were correct and used. Except for the tapping screws, which I suspect were to get the fog lights into the fog light brackets. The u-nuts were too big, smaller ones are used for the torx screws on the bumper and tapered bolts for the skid plate to the bumper.

The rivnuts for the skid plate bracket are good quality. You get them to fit by inserting them and screwing a bolt in to about 6.5-7ft-lbs. That isn't a lot of torque at all, and I found going beyond it helped the inserts be fitted better. They are designed such that when you get to the torque, the expand out and stay in place.

The Hex Bolts and Washers were not used to install the skid plate brackets. They are tapered and just would not reach when you included the bracket from the winch plate. We had to run and get M10x1.5x30 bolts from a nearby auto store. Could the issue have been because of over-torquing the rivnuts when installing them? Doubtful.

The wiring harness is great except the plastic rivets to secure it into the steel bumper holes are not aligned precisely. And, they have this terrible zip-tie bracket system to keep the rivets in place along the cable. I couldn't get them to budge without serious pulling. Had to leave 2 rivets out from frustration. But, nothing dangles, and everything works.

The skid plate is going without 2 screws (out of 5 connecting it to the bumper, the 2 connecting it to the brackets attached to the frame horns and winch plate are fine). I'm not concerned about this as there are still 5 screws held in at 20 ft-lbs of torque. The issue is the u-nuts into which they go. 2 were misaligned or damaged in some way and I ordered the incorrect u-nuts and I didn't want to deal with it.

The bumper top cover plate had to be removed for the winch because it barely blocked the winch. I wish there was a way to have the winch covered from the elements with the plate but with a slight cut out. Oh well. the empty holes it left in the bumper leave a lot to be desired. I can reuse the screws/bolts, but the u-nuts stayed with the cover plate and are hard to pull off. I'll find some nuts to go with the screws/bolts

The winch wires went closer to the the path leading down from the power steering reservoir. It avoids having the cables go over the air intake box.

I found using the factory service manual helpful. It gave torque specs. It is much more useful for removing the rear bumper and hitch.

The winch needs to be prepped by securing it to 1000lb object and holding tension as you spool it back in. Through inexperience with steel cable winches we ended up removing tension when unspooling (did not read the "Keep Your Winch Happy" paper) and it was a bit of a rough go getting it back in. Heard occasional clicking noises, couldn't tell if it was cable hitting the control box or the inner spool setting itself back into place. But it's in and seems to be fine. I'm going out on a trail tomorrow, will let it all out then back in properly. It's midnight and raining and I'm not going to go out unspooling cable line.

I forgot to bring my 300A fuse during the install. Easily remedied later on. The max draw is 380A though, so I may have to use a larger fuse for 400A. My concern is seeing several stories of Jeeps burning down because of a winch wiring issue. We were very careful in making sure the cables going onto the winch were not kinked, strained, or missing lock washers/nuts.

The winch was $350 after tax. A synthetic line version was $165 more expensive. I may upgrade to a synthetic line but I bought the steel based on searching the pros and cons of each.

I totaled everything in the setup for $1200 after taxes and/or shipping.
Steel bumper+Skid plate - $525 shipped
Missing harness and bolts/nuts - $106 (find a place that offers free shipping, all the sites charged $20-35 in shipping, only MoparOnlineParts.com gave me a coupon code for free shipping to save $23)
Winch Plate - $220
Smittybilt X20 Cable Winch - $350


Additional purchases:
Smittybilt 5.65 CFM Air Compressor - $145 - not needed but where I wheel it can be hit or miss if the local gas station 20mi away has a working air compressor. I once had to drive 100mi on underinflated tires on pavement (22-25psi on 32s, not a big deal).
Snatchblock - $30
Tow chains (5400lbs working load) - $20
Recovery strap - 30ft, 8k lbs working load, 30k lbs max - $50

So, everything I could need for recovery under $1500. Biggest savings came from the winch/skid.

Tomorrow, I go wheeling and some out-of-state folks are joining me by chance in their JTs, so hopefully I'll be better equipped now.
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