It bolts on. Can you see the pictures I posted?
With any part like this there is a potential to need to massage a hole or 10 with a reamer or step drill....
AH, now i see how it fits. It took me a while to notice the right piece in product photo had a big dip down in the middle and that there's a bolt on that upturned face and then a 90 degree turn back up again which is where that long line of bolts connects to engine crossmember. Thanks for showing a picture of your installation, it clarifies things now. I'm assuming the other piece is similarly meant for OEM connections.
Yeah i have no problem with assuming some holes will need a bit of convincing and expansion.
Here's the instructions for the product.
I feel stupid for just now realizing that BOTH of my axle's drop brackets are broken, and that this product is a pair of drop brackets. It's scary to think about how serious this is, and how i drove it at fairly high speeds for a little bit.
So should i be putting both sides of my front frame on jack supports ASAP so as to reduce the weight that the other hardware is now holding up? I mean, with both brackets currently doing nothing, is the weight of the truck potentially bending other hardware near the wheels?
Do not just start unbolting stuff. You need the frame supported on jack stands, wheels/tires removed and spring tension relieved. Those drop brackets should be the last thing you remove.
When you say spring tension relieved.. you mean just raising the frame enough so that the wheels dangle off the ground, correct?
I think I should just do this myself with a friend. Now that i understand where the hardware goes, it seems manageable.
I am a little confused why the instructions include so much hole drilling though... I guess this is aimed at people who just put in a new lift but didn't have these brackets already. Do the OEM non-lift brackets mount at completely different spots, so those people need to drill them? And for the lift brackets.. all the product makers use the same hole locations?
So my plan is to raise and support the frame so that the wheels are off the ground, remove wheels, start unbolting the now-loose pieces. But, i have to also remove the center bar in question too. Is there going to be any tension there with the truck raised as described? What should i expect with removing that triangle bracket that I'm going to delete? Should it be removed before the other pieces for any reason? Obviously that bushing likely lets that bar just drop down when it's unbolted from the triangle piece so i'm not very concerned about upwards or downwards sudden motions, but i am concerned about lateral motions. If anything, that bar could be holding the whole front suspension together right now. I think maybe that front bar, despite being the culprit in causing this, is what saved me from who knows what happening while driving with no brackets. It's keeping the passenger axle in somewhat of a position, and also has a bit of attachment to the engine crossmember holding on for dear life as well.