Radius arm bushing questions

While I was changing my oil last evening, I noticed one of the plastic rings in my radius arm bushing stack was cracked and split. Some thoughts and questions:

-On my 1995 Ranger there is a heat shield (Moog K8729) on the RH bushing to protect such from the nearby Cat/Exhaust. On the F150 there is no heat shield... Moog's application list doesn't show F-series/bronco getting them until 1987. That year there was a change to the design, but from past experience, it's only a change to the front bushing length (same diameter; I've been sold such as the later Ranger/brick/Aero part by accident before). Would it be a good idea to install one while I'm at it?

-On my Ranger, Moog has been consistently good for these (as they actually fit, unlike the red duralast ones that were the aformetioned bullnose part sold incorrectly). Are moog bushings any good on the bullnose application, or is there a better brand/better deal to be had?

-Debating with myself on whether I should take the lazy way and pry the beams forward to replace these, or if I should do things the "proper' way and pull the axle beams and replace said beam bushings too (AFAIK such are still good). Would be an opportunity to replace the noisy brake pads I have too... I've done such on my Ranger (and on the Ranger before that, done such by de-riveting the frame brackets due to not being able to break loose the spring/beam through-bolts). At the same time, I won't have time for a weekend-long suspension rebuild for a while (yay work ...

Thoughts/suggestions?

If you are willing to make the jump to polyurethane, the Energy Suspension radius arm bushings were a perfect fit on mine.

I figure if you're going to tear into the front end you might as well do it all, because it sounds like you are going to create more work for yourself anyway. And if you don't, you'll later be like "I wish I woulda done this or that when I had it apart". I can't speak for a 2WD truck but I never want to touch that Dana 44 TTB again and I hope I won't have to.

In the same boat here.

Accumulating all the parts I need so I can strip the front end down and replace everything that is worn. Including the radius arm bushings.

In my experience Moog is good.  And I do like the poly bushings.  But if the other bushings are good I'd seriously consider prying the beams forward and changing out what is bad.

Someone on here recently said "I shouldn't have tried to fix what wasn't broken."  Who was that?  

ratdude747 wrote

That year there was a change to the design, but from past experience, it's only a change to the front bushing length (same diameter; ...)

Right. The radius arms changed in 1987 on the 2wd trucks, and the bushings got shorter. I assume they did this to improve braking and to just tighten the front end up in general. I swapped in a a new set of the later radius arms on my 1984 F150. They work perfectly fine, but you must also use the later design bushings with them. If you're anywhere near the rust belt, radius arms are bad for rusting at the ends, inside the bushings. I did a bunch of measuring on these parts a few years ago.

Why I was in question. Unlike with Ranger #2, the radius arms are still good (not rotted out) so it's not a case where I have to pull apart everything in one fell swoop no matter what (and in said case, replacing the axle bushings wasn't too hard since I have a ball joint press).

That being said, I don't know if the beam prying trick works on the longer pre-1987 radius studs.

Edit- Found Moog Radius arm bushings and TRW axle bushings as wholesaler closeouts on RA... ordered both. Worst case I wasted $10 on axle bushings I end up not using.

ratdude747 wrote

That being said, I don't know if the beam prying trick works on the longer pre-1987 radius studs.

The radius arms should be the same length.

i use a chain pull to bring the axle forward and letting the axle swing downward" a little" helps too. this way the axle and radius arm are held firmly while you swap all parts and then it can "back down one click at a time in a safe, controlled manner. think it through and no one gets hurt. DONT TRY RATCHET STRAPS! the release is not what you want.

I was referring to the length of the entire arm... which includes the bushing stud. The pre-1987 arms have to be longer in order to accept a longer trailing side bushing while keeping the rest of the arm dimensions the same. Longer stud means the arm has to be tugged further to clear the bracket, hence my feasibility concern.

----

Noted on the chain fall... I'll see about getting one if I elect to not do beam bushings at the same time.

ratdude747 wrote

I was referring to the length of the entire arm... which includes the bushing stud. The pre-1987 arms have to be longer in order to accept a longer trailing side bushing while keeping the rest of the arm dimensions the same. Longer stud means the arm has to be tugged further to clear the bracket, hence my feasibility concern.

The arms are the same overall length though. it's the shoulder that moved and changed the available length of the stud. The only part of the bushing that changed is that the front half of the bushing got shorter. The plastic ring and rubber bushing on the back of the frame bracket are the same from 1980-1996.

I remember finding that and since Darth is the last year for 2WD king pins with the nice forged steel axles, I am not sure if the 1987 up radius arms would fit.

Did some work today... but it went sideways a bit.

-Blew up my impact gun. Smoked the switch. (it's a 9 year old beat to death corded HF junker... it's time was long coming). Despite this, Gary talked me into continuing... and I began to dig the hole! I have a new one coming (as an early Christmas gift) so all will hopefully be well tomorrow.

-Discovered that the axle beam bushings are starting to go. Nothing terrible, but since I have the parts (and am pulling the beams), I will be swapping them.

-Also discovered that the spring isolators are pretty crusty. While hunting down a lost tool, I found a pair of these with some surplus Ranger parts:

https://teamenergysuspension.com/product/energy-suspension-9-6106r-coil-spring-isolator-set/

Not sure why I never used them. Hopefully once I have a working impact gun again I'll be able to pull the spring nut (which seized on me when using a breaker bar) and see if they fit.

-Discovered my front brake pads are hosed from seized caliper slides. Ordered a set of pads to pick up tomorrow from the local Federated auto parts (as everybody else local only has cheap charlie garbage pads stocked... and I've read the Silent Stop pads Federated sells are better quality, even if nothing says what material they are). Hopefully no filing required like the Centric PQ's that were on it . And this time I'll hopefully adequately lube the slides... I swore I lubed them but they came off looking dry (and I had to remove the slide rail with a hammer and punch, hard!)

I was able to get the entire axle/arm/spring assembly off the right side...



Unlike my Ranger (where thee right arm cannot be swung straight down), this wasn't too terrible once I had all the fasteners pulled and figured out a good order of operations. .

Once I have the impact (taking the afternoon off tomorrow), I should be able to swap the axle bushings (have a ball joint press!) and pop off the spring (replace isolator). For center of gravity reasons I am doing this one side at a time (due to how far back I had to put the jack stand to be stable on the frame rail).

Make sure the pistons in the brake calipers aren’t seized.

When I had my 86 I was thinking of resealing mine. But the pistons wouldn’t budge. Had some nice brakes after I replaced the calipers!

Nice job!

They move no problem. They're Phenolic piston ones I installed a couple years ago because the originals were seized (and all anybody stocked were phenolic... and I didn't have time to wait on shipping).

Only the fixed pad was toast... the moving (piston) pad was fine.

Obtained brake pads and an impact gun... and 10 hours later it's done on both sides.

Didn't take too many pics... but there was a complication on the driver's side:





No amount of heat, liquid wrench, and vice grips would make it budge. Tried a screw extractor (which self-destructed)... ended up grinding past the broken extractor and drilled it out. I happened to have a nut and bolt in the junk pile that fit the bill:



Driver's side brakes looked a lot better... a lot less de-rusting (sanding) needed. Appears I used anti-seize there but not on the passenger side when I installed the last set of pads three years ago .

The Poly spring isolators did indeed fit:



The Silent Stop pads are semi-metallic and they fit great. No filing required (unlike the centric pads that came off ). And on the test drive they were mostly quiet (one chirp, but that may have been something else).  

I am exhausted... What a day. At least it's done. Other than getting the alignment rechecked (as the radius arm bushings may have changed wheel position slightly, which could have affected the toe).

Great work!! Want to come over and help me with mine?

If visiting you wouldn't set a trip milage record for either of my trucks...

Well done, Larry!  That must have been a lot of hard, frustrating work, but I'm sure it is satisfying to know it is done and done right.  

Were there differences in the handling?  Especially on braking, both from the radius arm bushings and the stuck caliper?

Still feeling it this morning... My legs are mad at me. And my arms are annoyed.

Handling is hard to say... it's not bad, but I can't say if it's much better. I didn't have an obvious handling issue; the only reason I did the work (initially) was because I found broken parts while doing an oil change.

I had a weird occasional pulsation in my brakes... which I haven't felt yet. Too early to say of a stuck caliper (as opposed to warped rotors/drums) was the issue.

---

Some more tips and tricks:

- Ball joint presses work for I-beam bushings but one needs an extra insert to push the old sleeve out; a Harbor Freight (Pittsburgh) 1 1/4" impact socket worked great. However, since one will be pushing with a chamfered surface, one must use a different insert with a flat surface to push the bushing flush before using such a socket. Don't get lazy and use the socket at the start like I did the second time... all that did was flare the sleeve!  I recovered from it by grinding most of the flared metal away and pressing though the rest (which split off from being ground thin). Didn't grind any more to ensure I didn't ruin the beam end (only bumped it a few light times with the grinder, no gouges or the like).

-Order of operations for assembly: Radius arm bushing (hand tighten until snug, I-beam bushing (will need to lift the ball joint area with a jack and even then it took a lot of shoving and spud bar magic to get the bolt through due to the twist in the beam relative to the frame mount), spring and isolator (having a stubby impact and a 10" extension is key), then everything else (spring retainer, shock mount, brakes, and tie-rod end in that order, but that order isn't critical).

-I dropped the tie rod from the knuckle to allow the whole beam/arm assembly to be removed and worked on aside the truck. Supposedly one can leave the tie rod attached... but I had no luck getting the radius arm out of the bracket with such attached.

-Remember not to tighten the beam bushing bolt until the truck is supported on both front wheels... This ensures that the bushing doesn't get twisted and that the bolt is fully under shear load. I don't think the same is true for the radius arm bushings (but I torqued them last anyway).  

You may be feeling the effects, but having gotten it done has to be a great feeling that counters the pain.  And it'll last a lot longer.  

Good tips by the way.