Stock front bumper mount questions

I recently got a set of factory tow hooks to replace the previous owner's tow bar set up that only appears to use the 3 bolt holes on each side of the mount like a stock bumper (scary), but it appears that the front 2 holes have been bored out to something in the 1/2" diameter area.

Before I head for the machine shop and drill press I half seem to remember that those same holes on the XJ side were just filled with the little piece of folded sheet metal (a quick nut??).

Can anybody validate or tell me I'm smoking crack??

If you think quicknuts will be strong enough your smoking crack.
There should also be brackets with those hooks that use more holes and go back about 6" on the rail.

The stock bumper brackets are attached to the frame ear with three bolts each, and two of the three on each side do go into fold-overs.

The factory tow hook brackets discard the fold-overs and replace them with L-shaped brackets that back up the frame rail. The 'L' brackets have weld nuts on them to receive the bolts that run through the tow hook brackets from the outside of the frame rail.

If you don't have these 'L' brackets, you don't have a complete setup.

The Custom 4x4 and Rusty's kits pretty much duplicate the factory setup. The factory kit, however, also uses an additional plate that fits horizontally under everything and above the hooks, to tie everything together. Check out this pic of the C4x4 kit against what you have:

If your 90* reinforcement (L) brackets don't have the welded on nuts, use the largest nut and bolt that will fit through the holes. Use grade 5 or grade 8 nuts and bolts. The diagram incorrectly shows quicknuts being used.
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Thank you all for the help.

I'm pretty sure its a factory kit because it matches the diagram from Tim complete with the braces that go from the hooks to the center of the rig, number 15 on the diagram.

Anyway as they say a pic is worth a 1000 words, and since this kit didn't come with directions Tim's diagram just made my weekend plans a little different.

Those fold overs were what I wanted to know about. I believe that the PO took them off and redrilled the holes on the "frame" to make the drawbar thing fit.

Thank you again.

Now that I've had time to dink with this lil project I have another question.

Does anybody know the unmolested size of the holes in the frame that the fold overs are in??

And while I'm at it how about the ones the L brackets are supposed to tie into??

Thanks again.

wrong1 said:

Now that I've had time to dink with this lil project I have another question.

Does anybody know the unmolested size of the holes in the frame that the fold overs are in??

And while I'm at it how about the ones the L brackets are supposed to tie into??

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

The hole is 1/2" the clipnut is 13mm