Pilot Automotive Nerf Bar Installation - 1999 GMC Sierra

Installation of Pilot Automotive Nerf Bars on a 1999 GMC Sierra

Today we are going to be installing Bully step bars, part number NB-103 on a 1999 GMC Sierra regular cab. We are underneath the vehicle now, and we are going to go ahead and point out the mounting location for the step bars. We are going to locate the body mounting brackets. There is one here at the forward side and one here, more toward the rear, almost even with the edge of the door. These are the two components that we are going to be using to attach our hardware to mount these step boards. We are going to be removing the bolts from these brackets and putting up our mounting brackets for the step bars.

So the first thing we want to do is to go ahead and remove the bolts from both the front and the rear mounting brackets. With both the bolt removed we have got the spacer in there as well. We want to identify the bolt at this point. If you have a 2006 or up model, you should have a 14-millimeter bolt, which we will actually set aside and reuse for the installation. If you have an older model and actually have a 12-millimeter bolt, we actually want to take and replace these with the longer 12-millimeter bolts that are provided in the installation kit.

All right, with the bolts removed and the hardware identified, we can go ahead and put our brackets on. We want to go ahead and put our rubber bushing up first. And at the front mounting locations, we actually are going to put this ring spacer in as well, and that is going to be at the front locations only. And then we will go ahead and put our mounting bracket on. You can see also on the bracket that we have got two sets of holes. We have got a longer side and a shorter side, and you want the shorter side of the bracket to be the fastener that is going to go up. So we want the long side facing out. I am just going to leave these hand tightened for the time being, because, as you can see, the holes at both this location and the top location are elongated. So we can make some final adjustments once we get the running board up into place. And at the rear attaching point we are going to do the same thing, but again, we are minus the ring spacer.

With the brackets loosely installed, we can go ahead and put the step bar on now. We want to fasten it with the 1/2-inch hardware that is provided in the installation kit, along with the flat washer and lock washer as well. What we are going to do - you can see, we have got the hole here in the long side of the bracket - we are just going to align the nut inside the step bar with the hole in the bracket. OK, now that I have got my bolts up into position and the step bar loosely installed, I want to make my final adjustments here, and then we can go ahead and tighten them up. As you can see, with the elongated holes that we had in the brackets, I can both move the step board forward and backward as well as side to side. So that will allow you to do your final adjustment there. Once you have that set, you can go ahead and tighten your bolts down.

After I have tightened them down, we can go back through and torque them to their specified torque ratings. You want to check with your directions to verify that appropriate torque rating for each individual bolt. Before I torque down the body mount bolt on the forward side, I want to double-check the spacer here to make sure that it is nice and centered against the bushing, because it will slide forward and back and it will not seat properly, so you do want to double-check that. And with the drivers side done, I am just going to repeat that procedure for the passengers side. This will conclude the installation of step bars part number NB-103 on a 1999 GMC Sierra.