needmorediesel
New Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2015
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2002 Explorer Limited
Hi all,
So I'll give a little back story. Our Explorer ever since day one of us owning it has been squeeking/creaking in the rear end. Now I've done quite a bit of suspension work enough to know the sound was definitely bushings. So I did some looking around and found that you can buy replacement bushings, Moog and other brands. The rear upper control arms seem to be the ones that were the worst, but I figured I would do the rear lowers at the same time as well. So I take the control arms to my brothers machine shop and we press them out. The upper one pressed out and in fine. We then went to the lower one and pressed them out. When we tried to press the replacement ones back in, and mind you these are good quality Moog's, they would NOT go back in. All they would do is bulge and started shredding. We had them lubed up as well and the sockets were clean. So, I then started shopping around for different bushigns, and tried the AutoZone house brand, they are 100% identical. I took a dial caliper and measured the diameter of the original bushings compared to the new replacements and the new ones are almost 2/10ths larger. What gives?? I even called the local Ford dealer and they said they don't sell replacement bushings, just the arms themselves, which are $514.00 a piece. Has anyone ran into this before?? I'm stumped... If these aren't meant to be serviced, why do they even sell them?
Anyways, any help or input would be greatly appreciated. I have been pulling my hair out on this for a couple of weeks and would really like to make the wife happy by getting her truck done for her.
Thanks everyone!
Justin
So I'll give a little back story. Our Explorer ever since day one of us owning it has been squeeking/creaking in the rear end. Now I've done quite a bit of suspension work enough to know the sound was definitely bushings. So I did some looking around and found that you can buy replacement bushings, Moog and other brands. The rear upper control arms seem to be the ones that were the worst, but I figured I would do the rear lowers at the same time as well. So I take the control arms to my brothers machine shop and we press them out. The upper one pressed out and in fine. We then went to the lower one and pressed them out. When we tried to press the replacement ones back in, and mind you these are good quality Moog's, they would NOT go back in. All they would do is bulge and started shredding. We had them lubed up as well and the sockets were clean. So, I then started shopping around for different bushigns, and tried the AutoZone house brand, they are 100% identical. I took a dial caliper and measured the diameter of the original bushings compared to the new replacements and the new ones are almost 2/10ths larger. What gives?? I even called the local Ford dealer and they said they don't sell replacement bushings, just the arms themselves, which are $514.00 a piece. Has anyone ran into this before?? I'm stumped... If these aren't meant to be serviced, why do they even sell them?
Anyways, any help or input would be greatly appreciated. I have been pulling my hair out on this for a couple of weeks and would really like to make the wife happy by getting her truck done for her.
Thanks everyone!
Justin
