radial arm insulators replacement

[mcqmga]

Hi guys , Long time MGA forum member , 1st time ford threader . Hope I'm in the right place - I am trying to replace FL radial arm insulators . My repair manual says to remove coil and shock . I have removed shock and bolt securing coil but it's not readily removable - Manual is very brief on procedure - Any help/tricks ?

Bob

 

[rngmStr]

disconnect/remove swaybar.............. should give enough play (suspension cycling) to remove coil

 

[Anime]

You'll need to have the vehicle supported by the frame or something other than the suspension, if the spring is compressed under the vehicle weight it won't come out. Let the weight off the suspension so the spring relaxes and the suspension arm just hangs, then with the spring retainer bolt off and the retainer free, the spring should be loose and come out from the top mount with some wiggling.

After that you'll need to pop off the rear radius arm bolts, then yank the whole assembly forward to replace the front bushing.

If you need to disconnect the sway bar, just remove the lower bolts holding it onto the suspension arm.

 

[mcqmga]

Thanks guys, I'll give it as try !

Bob

 

[Maniak]

If your working on what I "think" your working on.. we call them Radius Arm bushings.. and not Radial arm insulators.

If your talking about the little thing under the coil spring itself then I'm not sure what you call them.

Anyway, What I do to get the spring out is jack the vehicle up put a jack stand under the frame. Then I remove the lower shock bolt and pull the shock off the mount. If you want, you can remove the upper bolt on the shock to get it out of the way. Then you pull the 28mm bolt (1 1/8" I think) from the bottom of the spring.

If your lucky you can rotate the spring while pushing down on the axle beam and the spring will come out. If you have sway bars up front then you will most likely need to disconnect it on the side you are working on.


~Mark

 

[Tshark299]

To do mine I removed the crossmember that the radius arms bolt to. I felt it was easier because I didn't have to touch the front suspension at all. Plus, mine were so far gone one side had worn the cross member hole oblong, so it should have been replaced anyway.

Mine were original with almost 170K miles on them. I bought an $18 air hammer from harbor freight tools to pop the rivets off, and the new cross member came with new hardware to replace them.

 

[jones152]

TShark:
When you purchased the new cross member, did it come with brackets already attached or did you buy the brackets separately? I have seen online where you could by the individual brackets and I thought it was weird, sense mine were attached to that cross member, it looked like one long piece.

 

[Tshark299]

TShark:
When you purchased the new cross member, did it come with brackets already attached or did you buy the brackets separately? I have seen online where you could by the individual brackets and I thought it was weird, sense mine were attached to that cross member, it looked like one long piece.

The replacement crossmember is in 2 pieces and the radius arms bolt directly into those pieces. I've seen full-size fords that use individual brackets to attach the radius arms to the frame, but on the Explorer the two brackets basically bolt together to form one crossmember, and then that assembly bolts to the frame and the radius arms. Hope that clears it up.