Rancho Radius Arm Bushings

[MickeySpiers]

I have a Rancho 2.5" lift on my '91 Explorer, and the radius arm bushings are shot. Rancho apparently discontinued this kit in '99, which coincidentally is when I bought the kit, and they have zero bushings. I've tried searching the internet for anyone with old stock (part numbers 566 and 567 for the curious) and came up empty. The tech line for James Duff has been busy for three days so they're worthless. Energy doesn't make a crossover - anyone have a clue where I can get new bushings for this lift? I really don't want to have to buy a whole new lift to fix a set of bushings...

 

[Maniak]

Do you have pics of what their bushings look like? That may help us find something similar.

~Mark

 

[swshawaii]

Probably not correct for the Rancho R/A brackets but....

http://www.prothanesuspensionparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=61210

 

[MickeySpiers]

Do you have pics of what their bushings look like? That may help us find something similar.

~Mark

I do!

I.D. of the hole is 0.90"
O.D of the part that goes through the mount is 1.600"
Overall length of this thing is 2.3"
Length of the thick part of the bushing (the part that adjusts my caster) is 1.275"

Thanks for any help.

 

[MickeySpiers]

Probably not correct for the Rancho R/A brackets but....

http://www.prothanesuspensionparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=61210

That looks similar. I called the engineering department at Prothane {(888) 776-8426} but they close at noon California time on Fridays. I'll try them Monday I suppose.

In the meantime I've spoken to Energy Suspension (who was polite but couldn't help), ProStar (who wasn't interested in talking to me), James Duff but they only do Heim joints, and a rather helpful fellow at Suspension Restoration Parts. Superlift looked like they may have something that fits, but I've so far come up empty...

 

[4x4junkie]

Those Prothane ones should work fine, as should just about any bushing made for an OEM application (I have Energy Suspension #4.7110G bushings in a set of Rancho radius arm brackets on my Ranger).

 

[MickeySpiers]

Those Prothane ones should work fine, as should just about any bushing made for an OEM application (I have Energy Suspension #4.7110G bushings in a set of Rancho radius arm brackets on my Ranger).

I have a set of the Engergy Suspension bushings (different numbers tho, mine are 7003 and 7004) that came with the master rebuild kit I bought for my Explorer. The thickness is off tho, the head is shorter by about a quarter of an inch, which will push my front wheels back a quarter inch, and I would think screw up the caster?

 

[swshawaii]

The 7003/4 bushings appear to be the part of the 4.7110 kit.

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/Installation_Instructions/Energy_Suspension/17230.pdf

 

[MickeySpiers]

Sure enough. My concern tho is that the head of the 7003 bushing is only an inch thick, and the head of my 13 year old Rancho bushing is an inch and a quarter. I'm worried that this discrepancy will be enough to throw my alignment out of whack, and put a funky angle on my axle pivots. Not to mention my tires barely clear the rear of my (factory) wheelwells at full lock as is... I suppose a thick washer would make up the difference, as I've struck out finding the Rancho pieces...

 

[4x4junkie]

Was gonna say, just put a couple washers ahead of the large dished washer on the radius arms to act as a spacer.

I would suggest checking your toe alignment afterward though, just to be safe (a full camber/caster check shouldn't be needed unless it's pulling to one side).

 

[Benjam]

Mickey,

I was just curious if you found a source for rancho bushing look a likes?

Benjam

 

[Benjam]

Bumping this for any future searchers:

Probably not correct for the Rancho R/A brackets but....

http://www.prothanesuspensionparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=61210

These bushings worked great with my rancho arms, where as stock bushings did not.

Benjam