who has installed a 4+Products rear bumper? Help needed (8 Viewers)

[Schroedinger]

More musings on my bumper/spare dilemma.

Good- tonight I spent a couple hours trying to clean up the post and bushings with everything I could think of.
Bad- both surfaces are seriously galled and pitted. I even ran a cylinder hone inside the bushings to try to smooth them out, it’s hopeless. I don’t think I’m putting these arms back on.

Good- my truck still has the crossmember and reel installed for the stock spare tire location, and the reel appears to work fine. Just need to find the chain assembly which is missing.
Bad- the 4+ bumper covers the keyhole in the bodywork, and there’s no easy way to get the tool to the reel to wind/unwind it.

So my current options are as follows:
- return the rear bumper to stock and use the stock spare location as designed
- keep the 4+ bumper and devise some kind of short tool to raise and lower the spare without passing through the keyhole.
- throw the spare in the cargo area and worry about other stuff for a while.

So far option 3 is looking like a winner. I need to figure out this leaky power steering pump situation.

 

[BurntToast]

Can you press out the old bronze bearings? Grab a couple new ones from McMaster and keep rolling.

 

[Schroedinger]

Possibly? The bushing are pushed into both ends of the tube, and have a collar preventing them from being pushed in. I can’t think of a good way to press them out. There’s no way to get to the under surface of either bearing from the opposite end. I’m open to suggestions here.

There’s also the issue that the posts on the bumper are fairly galled and I think they’ll just tear up any new bushings I put in.

 

[timexlost]

grab some 180 grit emery cloth, rip off a two or three foot section of it and go to town on that spindle. I think id be drilling and installing a Zerk fitting in that carrier for some grease.