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Trailer Hitch Installation - 2002 Ford Taurus
Custom Fit Trailer Hitch
This Product Fits The Following Vehicles
2004 - 2005 Mercury Sable
2004 - 2005 Mercury Sable Wagon
2004 - 2006 Ford Taurus
2004 - 2006 Ford Taurus Wagon
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Manufacturer Instructions
Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2002 Ford Taurus
Today we are going to be installing trailer hitch 36313 from Draw-Tite, and this also includes hitch number 90309 from Hidden Hitch, on a 2002 Ford Taurus. We are underneath the vehicle now, and we are looking at the passengers side frame rail. We are going to go ahead and point out the mounting locations for the trailer hitch. You can see first on some models there will be a carbon canister mounted here on the passengers side frame rail, and the instructions do stipulate what you need to do in that instance. This particular vehicle does not have that canister, so we can go ahead and omit that section of the instructions. We are going to go ahead and use the inboard vertical bolt, here, as one of the attaching points, so we will need to go ahead and remove that bolt. On models with the tow hooks, we are going to need to remove those as well. There is one bolt holding those in there should be one on each side of the vehicle if the vehicle does have the tow hooks.
The other attaching point will be here at the bottom of the frame. We actually are going to feed the handle nut and block through this hole in the side of the frame and align it with the hole at the bottom of the frame. The hole that we are going to use does vary from model to model, so what we are going to need to do is go ahead and remove this bolt, get the hitch up into position, and then figure out which hole aligns with the hole in the hitch. On the drivers side as well, there is the exhaust. We are going to need to go ahead and lower that first to make room to get the hitch up into place. On the exhaust, there should be two hangers, one at the rear side here and then one more forward of the exhaust, and we need to go ahead and remove both of those to lower the exhaust down properly. And go ahead and remove the tow hooks from both sides of the vehicle.
Again, you want to take off the tow hooks before you actually try to attempt to take the bolt out of the vertical side of the frame, because the tow hook will be in the way. OK, with the bolts removed from the inboard side of the vehicle and the tow hooks removed as well, we can go ahead and put the hitch up into position. And we want to use the new hardware that is provided in the installation kit for this vertical attaching point. We want to make sure that we have the hitch arm mounted to the rear side of the flange here it does not go on the inboard side. It is very tight quarters here, so it will require some patience to get the bolt in there, but it will go. OK, we do not want to fully tighten those down just yet. Leave it just a little bit loose so that we can finagle it if we need to later.
OK, with the hitch up into place, you can come to the bottom side of the frame here, and you can see where the bolt holes align with the hole in the hitch. So we are actually going to use this location here. We are actually going to take the half-inch bolt that is actually going to go up inside the frame this way. In order to do that, we are going to need to use the handle nut and the block that are provided in the kit. These two are actually going to go together, like so. We are going to go ahead and tape those two into place, and we are going to feed them through the hole in the side of the frame and then align it to where it aligns over top of this hole. I need a little trick to hold the alignment: we need to go ahead and thread the bolt into the handle nut, and that will hold it in place for you. And we want to go ahead and do that for both assemblies, and then we can go ahead and feed them up into the frame.
And again, you are probably going to need to bend the handle nut the handle to the handle nut here bend it however you need to, to get it into position inside the frame over the existing hole. We are going to go ahead and repeat that process for the other side as well. OK, now that we have got all the attaching points up into position, we can go ahead and torque the bolts down. And you want to check with your instructions to verify the appropriate torque rating for each individual bolt. All right, with the bolts all torqued down, we can go ahead and put our exhaust back up into position, and then our installation will be complete. And this will conclude the installation of hitch part number 36313 on a 2002 Ford Taurus.
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Product arrived very quickly. Everything was there and fit properly. I'm very satisfied.
Greg
Hillsborough, NC
