How to check Radius Arm Bushings?

[gijoecam]

I would like to know the easiest way to check the radius arm bushings? Does the weight need to be off the front end, or can they be wiggled (if they're bad) wwith the wheels on the ground?

Thanks for the info

-Joe-

 

[MrShorty]

I checked mine by getting underneath where I could see the radius arm and rocking the body. When the bushings were bad, the rear end radius arm would slop around instead of staying put.

 

[mrboyle]

There are two easy ways to do this. First, crawl under your X and grab the driver's side radius arm. Now pull down on it as hard as you can. If it moves the bushing is bad. To check the passenger side do the same thing, except you will need to push up on the arm. The other way to check them is to lay down under the vehicle and have someone you trust (don't ask the wife to do it if she's mad at you ) carefully rock the vehicle back and fourth. If the bushings are bad there will be a noticable amount of movement in the arm (a slight ammount of movement is normal).

 

[rocco123]

I couldn't move mine by hand when I found them bad. I suspected them to be bad, then had my wife move the vehicle forward and backwards while staying clear of the front wheels and watching for movement at the aft end of the rod.
After confirming that there was a lot of movement in the bushing, I removed the nut on the radius rod, and found the bushing to be shot.
Better to replace the bushing before it goes metal to metal, then the arm will be chewed up. I drilled the rivets and installed grade 8 bolts.

 

[Rhett]

I also drilled the rivets out and used Grade 8 bolts like rocco123. I found it simpler to do it that way, and it's worked great for me for 1 1/2 years now.

Here's how I determined that the RA bushings were bad on my truck: It started making noise underneath, which I finally (after a lot of messing with brakes, u-joints, tie-rods etc. ) narrowed down to the radius arm bushings. At the time, had I more experience with the Ford A-arm suspension, maybe I would have diagnosed it faster like my mechanic did within 2 minutes. (made me feel kinda dumb since I had torn apart everything else up front). There wasn't too much play in the arms, but once I got the old bushings out of there I could see that the pass. side bushing was in bad shape from the heat of the exhaust pipe.

 

[THWILL]

If the wiggle test doesn't work and you have a large socket set, you can just take the nut off and and look at the end of the bushing where it goes through the bracket. Once you have the loud "clunk" going over bumps, then the bushings are probably shot. Mine have been replaced 4 times! The last time I did it myself as the rivets are long gone. What a terrific difference it makes with some new bushings.

Ford has a kit which looks much better than the bushings I looked at from NAPA. I highly recommend the OEM parts. The kit I got from Ford included 2 bushings. The part number is F1TZ3B203B and is $26.34 from fordpartsonline.com. You also need 2 insulators which is part number D9TZ3B203A. These go for $6.34 each.

Good luck

 

[Hank]

In a shameless act of self promotion you know you can get the Daystar radius arm bushings (set) for 16.49 from the special offer between flexplorers.com and explorer4x4.com

See link below.

All the best.

hg