Trailer Hitch Installation - 1997 Infiniti QX4

This Product Fits The Following Vehicles

1997 - 2003 Infiniti QX4

1996 - 2004 Nissan Pathfinder 2 and 4 Dr.

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Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 1997 Infiniti QX4

Today we are going to be installing part number 70609 from Hidden Hitch on a 1997 Infiniti QX4. The first thing we want to do is to go ahead and remove the spare tire and get the chain up out of the way. OK, taking a look at the frame rails here, we are going to go ahead and point out the locations for the mounting holes. We are on the passengers side, and you can see there is a tie-down hook over here on the side of the frame, held in by three bolts. We are going to have to actually remove these three bolts because those are going to be the attaching points for the hitch itself. And we need to do that same thing on the drivers side where there is a tow hook, as well. So, the first step is to go ahead and remove the bolts here. OK, over here on the drivers side frame rail, again, we are going to need to remove the tow hook, removing these same three bolts as we removed on the passengers side. In order to do so, we are going to need to take down this compressor box, here, as well. This is held in with three bolts on the frame right here, right here, and right here. We want to do that first, again, to get it out of the way. And then we can take down the tie-down hook.

You can see with the compressor lower now there is a lot more access to the bolts that we are looking to take out. OK, as you can see when I removed the tow hook that there is a wire bundle that is attached to it. You can remove that clip by simply pressing the tabs on the back side and pushing it back through. One thing that I want to mention before we actually put the hitch up into place is that if you look on the side of the frame, there is the three weld nuts where we removed bolts from to take the tow hook down. There is actually a fourth weld nut up on the side of the frame, as well, that the hitch is going to use as an attachment point. Which, again, did not have a bolt in it. So there may be some corrosion built up into that weld nut, so you probably want to clean it out first with some WD-40 and maybe a wire brush to ensure that the bolt will go in easier.

OK, you can see now we have got the hitch up into position, and we have got the four bolts kind of loosely installed into the side of the frame. We want to go ahead and hand tighten these down, and then we are going to come back and torque them down after that. All right, with all the bolts hand tightened down, we want to go ahead and go back and torque them all down now. And all the fasteners here will get torqued to 68 foot-pounds. And with all the bolts torqued down, we want to go ahead and make sure we put the compressor back up into place. OK, with the bolts all torqued down and the compressor back up into place, the only thing left to do would be to put your spare tire back up. And this will conclude the installation of part number 70609 on a 1997 Infiniti QX4.

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