Tony H
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- September 4, 2003
- Messages
- 1,595
- Reaction score
- 13
- 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.
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.