Radius Control Arm Bushings

[squeege]

I bought this truck with 80K on it, and within a month had Cottmans rebuild the tranny A4LD, which seems to work fine after 6 months of hard, high speed driving.(they said they did all the updates whatever that means)

I started getting a "Clunk" sount when I hit bumps, and that turned into a constant vibration with the "clunking" becomming more regular nad much louder. I had a few verbal over the phone estimates in the range of 300-400 bucks.

I ran accross this mexicano garage "Amigos" here in Raleigh and asked "Pedro" How much, I need it se vende.. he says he'll do it for $150 and I bring the "boochings", so I go to Auto Zoned and get:

RADIUS CONTROL ARM BUSHING
DURALAST RADIUS CONTROL ARM BUSHING for a 1992 FORD TRUCK EXPLORER 4WD
Unit Price: $7.99 per side

each Box contains 2 black rubber bushings (front and rear), one big rounded washer. one huge plastic washer, and a little tube of rust off ointment.

So I rode it with the Radius arm on the cross member so long that the receiving hole is now a receiving oval... Pedro spot welds and grinds and spot welds until the ovals are circles, gets everything together right. He even throws in a new inspection sticker.

Good deal huh? and the truck rides like new.

My next gift to myself will be a lift kit, suspension or body, but preferably a suspension. Some bigger rims and tires and a flowmaster exhaust.

I want my truck to look like "REDRIGS" truck !!

 

[marragtop]

Lucky you found 'pedro'. Most places would bang you for a new crossmember and maybe even the radius arm.

 

[squeege]

And today....

I replaced my rotors, bearings, and pads. Took about 1 hour and what a difference.

3" Body lift kit should be here Tuesday.. Yay!

Priced some 30 X 10.50's X 15 at walmart - $70 each..

Got to get rid of the holy rusted doglegs though.

 

[410Fortune]

3" body lift I would look to stuff some 33-32's not 30's
But thats just me

 

[squeege]

Well... I aim to please my audience so I priced 33's at wallyworld - $77 each.

I thought something that big myght scrub something.. but you guys know more about all this than I do so fire away with any suggestions, Im all keyboards....

 

[ledgebutta]

yea you should get at least 31's on there nothin less if your getting a 3in body lift... i would personaly put 33s in there and maybe put some shackles and coil spacers which can give you about another 2in's

 

[ma96782]

What gears are you running........WARNING.......IF it's too high, you may not like it. Also, think about a speedo gear change.......IF you're going to larger tires.

Aloha, Mark

 

[Rhett]

Pedro sounds like a good man, doing all that for $150...even welding and grinding to fix the radius arm bracket!!

And squeege with a 3" BL, I'd add the CHEAP shackle-and spacer lift and you could run 33's with no rub.

 

[Lt.Jim]

I wish Pedro lived around here. I just did my bushings today and would have gladly paid someone else $150 to do it.

 

[Darrman]

I worked on mine all weekend, first time to have to grind the rivets off, what a pain in the ass, still only half done, still have to do the passenger side. I went with poly this time, got a hyperflex master kit, hopefully these really do last longer than rubber. $150 huh, lets see I dropped $60 on the master kit, and $35 on the grinder, and $10 on the new bolts, $105 total so far, add a whole lot of headache, pain and cussing and that $150 sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Of course I also put in a new fuel filter while I was at it.
The reason why it is taking so long was the drivers side rear rivet, the one under the parking brake, even ground all the way down to the frame, crossmember removed, would NOT come out, had a long punch and a baby sledge, I pounded the ***** for hours, tried the torch, everything, finally got it by drilling out the center, and beating the hell out of it somemore

 

[ledgebutta]

dam thats some work for a RA bushing... hopfully mine doesnt take that long to do..

 

[Darrman]

Well after about a collected 4 hours of work, after work, I finally got the passenger side done. The drivers side was in good shape, reusable shape even, but the passenger side was completly ruined. Somehow the front bushing cracked completly through, so some genius apparantly shot some epoxy in it, and put a hose clamp around it, problem solved I guess. Only problem was they put the screw part toward the inside so that everytime the suspension flexed it would grind against the crossmember, tore it all up, and the hose clamp disintegrated when I started trying to remove it. The rear side of the bushing was also ruined, just worn out.

 

[PTBishop]

Well... I aim to please my audience so I priced 33's at wallyworld - $77 each.

I thought something that big myght scrub something.. but you guys know more about all this than I do so fire away with any suggestions, Im all keyboards....

those are an entry level tire then. if you're doing the lift and wanting the truck to be worth something. put some good tires on it. like michelin or BF Goodrich, don't put the mud kings or sport kings on it they won't last and they wont do as well when you're wheeling.