Radius arm Bushings: My Comments, observations | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Radius arm Bushings: My Comments, observations

Tony H

Explorer Addict
Joined
September 4, 2003
Messages
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City, State
New York, Wading River (that's on Long Island)
Year, Model & Trim Level
'91 Eddie Bauer
Did my Bushings this past week. Went with the NAPA Urethanes
They were done once before so no rivets to grind off.
Casual look, it seems like a no brainer and actually it would be but...
There is no easy way to unbolt the Bracket. It's impossible to get Socket and rachets on any of the hardware. The Radius arm is in the way of the 2 bolts running up into the frame. So Box wrench with a pipe on it is what's needed. The replacemnt bolts for the Rivets are in a bad spot too. On the passenger side the Catalytic convertors make it really tough to get your hands in there to get a wrench on it. On the drivers side, the Fuel filter bracket has to be unbolted and the Emergency brake cable is right in line with the hardware making it very tough to get a wrench in there. On the outside of the frame rail, the inner fender gets in the way making it tough to even get a ratchet on that.
The only easy hardware was the 4 pieces that hold the two brackets to each other.
After getting the brackets down the actual swap out of the bushings was very easy. Just snugged the bushings enough so they sit correctly in the Bracket. to be properly torques after weight is on the Front End.
However, I had to jack the bracket up into place because the new bushings prevented it from just lifting up into place to catch the hardware. Had to manhandle the brackets around to get the holes to lineup.
A 40 minute job took 2 hours, too bad Ford didn't plan ahead. after all Bushings are maintainence items. It would have been more of a horro if I did this the way the book says and take down the Springs and pull the Radius arm off the front axle.
 



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I replaced the Radius arm bushings on my 92 one at a time, the first was the learning experience, the second time took less the 40 minutes. You DO NOT need to grind of the rivets. It is a moderately easy job when you unbolt the radius arm from the I-beam, which you can get at through the spring. It takes some extensions and a beefy torque wrench or breaker bar. The I beam can be lowered and pushed away from the radius arm, remove the nut on the radius arm and pull the rad arm out. You need to pull off the caliper, to allow enough movement/lowering of the I-beam.

It's only a horror story if you don't know the right way to tackle it.
 






I was looking at that option but I didn't see how the I beam would get out of the way to slide the threaded end out of the Rear bracket.
You didn't have to mess with the springs and shocks?
 






You do have to pull one end of the shock off to allow for enough range of movement. Sorry I left that out. You use the long extension to go down from the top of the spring bracket, down through the spring to remove the first of 2 nuts, the first acts as a keeper to hold the spring in place. You now can jack up the vehicle, the I beam will lower and the spring is easily pulled out of the way. There is a second nut under the spring base cup that then needs to be removed, the bolt that holds the assembly together can then be removed. The radius arm is now free at last!
 






Got it. The shock acts as a Stop. unbolt the bottom of the Shock. Then unbolt the Lower Spring Keeper.

Next time.

I just kept reading the Threads here and they said to pull the back bracket off. It looked so simple until you really eyeballed the locations of everything.

I wonder . If you do that you may not even need to disconnect the Radius arm from the I beam. Will it giv eyou enough movement to slide the back of the arm out?

THANKS
 






hah there is a way to do it with out unbolting anything but the radius arm... its probably not good but i did it once with out any problems =)

i took the small, hydralic jack that comes with the truck for the spare tire, and wedged it between the axle arm and the frame. Then i cranked that sucker until the radius arm was out and i could change out the bushing haha
 






I think I recall on one of the arms, I was able to just loosen the second nut to allow the assembly to pivot on the bolt and will a little (alot) of leg pushing I was able to push the Rad. arm out of the bushing, change the bushing and begin the reassembly without actually separating the Rad arm from the I beam. I think this became a necessity due to being unable to fully loosen the second nut.
 






Yeah there's all kinds of ways people do it, and I guess it's a matter of personal preference. Me personally, I like, and have always done with my TTB trucks, the rivet method. Takes a little elbow grease the first time, but then after that it's eaaasy...
 






My knuckles are just now healing after tackling this project last month. I tried to pull the I Beam forward after unbolting the shock and the spring retainer nut. The drivers side went without a hitch but Oh My God was the passanger sie a bear!

What I will try next time is to unbolt the shock and the spring and then remove the axle beam hinge bolt for each side one at a time, drop the I beam and move it forward. On the surface this sounds like it may make the process easier.

In any event, DAMN Ford for making a simple routine maintenance item so difficult to service.
 






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