http://www.etrailer.com/tv-Hitch-Install-2003-FordEscape.aspx
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Today we are going to install part number 90635 from Hidden Hitch. And we are going to install this on a 2003 Ford Escape. First to show you where the hitch mounts up on the frame of the vehicle, where it is going to mount up is on this hole here and here. What is going to happen is we will thread our hardware from the edge of the frame through the opening back here and we will pull our hardware through from the inside out. Now some vehicles, there will be an exhaust shield on there which you will have to trim. Instructions are provided to do that but in this case there is not one existing so we do not have to worry about it. And if you do have to trim it, it is very easy. Tin snips is all you need to cut it out and make room for the hitch. And this assembly is going to be both identical on both sides.
And it is also going to use one last attachment. It is going to use a tow loop here too. We are going to start on the passenger side of the vehicle. We will start fish wiring our hardware in. Now there is going to be two bolts that go in, per side. And there is a difference in the bolts too. The one is just basically going to be longer than the other. What is going to happen is the short bolt is going to go in the rear most hole here and then the longer bolt is going to go in this hole and it is going to get a spacer put between the frame and the hitch itself. So that is why you will put the longer bolt in the back. With the fish wiring tools, we will start with the bolt in the back. We will just pull it through the hole we are going to use. Go all the way to the end of the frame and pull it out.
Okay, and it is just long enough so be careful you do not push the wiring back into the frame. Take your block and install it on there. There you go. Stay. Okay, you just take that block and just push it on in on the wire. And we are going to the back hole so we are going to use the long bolt. Thread that into place, and pull the whole assembly through and out. Do the same thing with the rear most hole here. All right, same thing again. This is a little bit easier to see. And the short bolt will go here. All right, and that is all we have to do on the passenger side. We will go over to the driver side and do the same exact thing. There we go. All right next we can go ahead and start installing the hitch on the vehicle and what we will do is we will hang the hitch by the two rear bolts first and then the four bolts we will leave alone because we will have to push them up out of the way so we can get our blocks in there. And we will just use a couple of nuts just to really hold the hitch in place for now.
And we are just going to just hang it so we can leave it loose so we can move the hitch around as we need. All right, let us go ahead and push the bolt up just a little bit, install our block, let it fall back through, then we will put our nut and washer on there so it does not come back out. Just a couple of threads because we are still going to do this on the other side. There you go. All right, next we will work on the tow loop assembly. So you loosely can move it around, we will put our spacer block between the hitch and the tow loop and then that block will go on the outside with the carriage bolt and that will run all the way through. And then we will pile it up with a lock washer and nut. Since we have got all of our hardware installed now, we will go ahead and snug down the bolts. Make sure the hitch sits where you want it. Okay. All right, once you are satisfied with that we can go ahead and torque down the bolts as specified in the instructions. And with that, that finishes our install with part number 90635 from Hidden Hitch.
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a really well done guide
drummerjunk 1 year ago