[How to] Install KAIK Grab Bar

THis will settle all the problems with having to either remove the entire dash or the airbag out of your 98-04 s-10 or blazer. This is how to install the Kaik grab bar using the dash speaker location as your access area. It took me about 3 hours to figure this all out and go threw a lot of frustration, and it helps to have a second person

KAIK grab bar ($76.99 + shipping at the time I bought it)--> http://www.kaikproducts.com

Before:


Stock vs. Kaik Grab bar:


First remove the left bolt. To do this remove the dash bezel and your headunit and you can use a small socket wrench with a 10mm socket (im pretty sure it was 10mm). you can feel around and you will feel the bolt up there. Remove this bolt entirely, if you drop it thats no big deal because KAIK gives you new ones that are different sizes anyways, but if you drop it you have a loose nut in your dash and thats never good.


Next you need to get the right side bolt out. To accomplish this remove the dash speaker grill and the speaker. This is the tricky part. You now need either a long swivel extention for your socket wrench or I had a 8" or so snake thing that allows you to get in tight places and bend it. You will need a small inspection mirror to help you see the bolt that needs to be removed. Place the mirror in the speaker hole and look for the bolt. There will be one bolt thats easy to find.......and i thought this was the one at first and once i got it out the grab bar was still bolted in, i concluded that that bolt must have been to hold the airbag into the dash or something......but i just put that bolt back on and tightened it up. the picture below labels this incorrect/misleading bolt as "Wrong". The bolt you want is a little more the right and up higher, but i was unable to get a decent picture of it with the camera, and it is labeled "about here"

Use your 10mm socket with a swivel extension or some type of snake thing and get the bolt out. The Grab bar will now come out.


The new grab bar comes with new nuts(11mm now, versus the stock 10 mm) and washers , the threads on the grab bar are different sizes so you must use the new hardware. The nuts and washers are now seperate, as where the stock one was one of those types that are a washer and nut combined into one thing. This makes things a little more tricky. I decided to use superglue to glue the nut and wahser together. Because you need to get the nut and washer behind the dash and screw it into the theads of the new grab bar. its very tricky.....I had the nut/washer thing fall off the end of my snake extension thing at least 10 times......each time it fell i was easily able to get it back by reaching in the speaker hole or it feel in the glove box area(easier to find dropped nuts if you glove box door is completly removed). But it takes some serious patience but after a while you will get it. It helps to have another person hold the grab bar in place while the other is trying to tighten the nut. Just tighen up the nut once you get it on. Then I did the left side nut: just insert the grab bar thread into the left side hole, put the washer on the back side followed by the nut, and tigthen it up. Now you have a newly installed grab bar! You can see the snake thing sitting on the dash that I used.


Any questions/comments feel free to ask