Dang, that looks like a PITA. If mine ever failed I think I'd just take the bar off and bring it to the shop like you said.

On a side note isn't that track bar bolt supposed to be something ridiculous like 369 ft lbs? Do you have a giant torque wrench or did you just make it as tight as you could?

 

Thnx Blade! If your ball joints where that tight I can't imagine trying to wrestle with them in the garage. Lol

Ian, I just gusstimated on the torque. As you said it's way over 300ft/lb and I downt have anything that goes that high.
I forgot to mention the truck does drive a little better. There was a small wobble in the steering wheel at about 60mph that cleared up. I noticed the inside of the old bushing was larger (maybe 15-20 thousands).

 

its 400ft/lbs but no one that i know of has a wrench that gets that high so what we do is impact it forever until it doesnt move then take a wrench and use a hammer and keep going till we cant go anymore and so far its held together. im doing my track bar bushing this weekend or next but im also doing the ball joint on the other end so we shall see how this goes

 

Hate to resurrect this from the bit basement but is heat the key to getting this bushing out?

I ended up buying a complete trackbar with the bushing already installed. I think God himself pressed mine in! Bent the crap out of my ball joint press and it wouldn't budge a mil.

Wow is it tight!

 

I think the heat did help a lot but it was still a booger! Having some good quality tools is the key to making it an easy job. It all went back together about like you would imagine but that old bushing was seriously pressed in there and a little bit of corrosion had it locked up pretty good. The bushing was the least expensive way to fix it but really the whole bar assembly isn't terribly expensive AND the joint on the other end is new also. I think you made the right choice unless you just enjoy wrestling with stuff like this.

 

Guess at this point it's a learning experience and a challenge!

The ball joint came out rather easy, hard part was trying to get all the adapters to work. Quality Harbor Freight tools 😃

 

Harbor Freight has some decent quality stuff, you just have to be very careful shopping there because they're happy to sell you junk that breaks the first time you try use it also.

 

Rusty,
Thanks for the link to this good info. I will be doing the bushing in the next week or so
and the ball joint on the other end also. I only wished I had a torque multiplier that
had a readout on the torque for installing that 400ish Ft/Lb nut.



Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

Anytime Sean! You've helped me a bunch, glad to be able to pay back even a little. I guess its possible to do the math but I figured 225lbs on a four foot long wrench/pipe should be close. I added a couple of small bounces just for good measure . I thought the best tip was that it was possible to get squarely at the bolt on the 4x4 trucks just by turning the tire hard left.

 

Good to know.

I looked up the steps in the workbook last night and thought I would share them.


Did you keep the weight on the tires? Also did you have nay problem getting the
bolt back into the holes?

BTW same steps for the 4WD and RWD.



Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

Yup. Never jacked it up. If you rock the steering wheel with the track bar disconnected the front of the whole truck moves from side to side, the wheels don't turn. Plenty of movement to get things lined up. Might take a couple of trys if you're working by yourself but not too hard at all.

 

Thanks to everyoned ideas and Rusty's Blood,Sweat And Tears

Here is what I have so far
The new tool with the first victim or maybe I should say Job.

I guess I really should install the gauge in the top of the ram
so I can get a reading of just how much force I am averaging
when I slide is bushing into the track-bar.

I am just waiting on the new track bar ball joint to show
up and then I will do this job.

I also thought that because I got a new tool that maybe along with a new bushing
I should get the truck a new nut and bolt to go with it all.
After all the shop manual tells you to tighten the track bar bracket nut to 550 Nm (406 lb-ft).
The new bushing gets pressed into the hole in the track bar along with some nice grease they sent
in the kit. Funny thing if you look in the shop manual they say nut but the new nut is a clip style.
So I till find out if the clip will hold up to 550 Nm (406 lb-ft). I think that a flange nut with the clip
may just stand up to the load. So we will see.





Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

I used the same Energy suspension bushing, the poly was a pain to install into the track bar! But I did get it in the and tightened up and all is good and solid now.

 

Good to know. The guy at ES said the hardest thing will be getting the
old bushing out. He also said grease the snot out of it and make sure that the poly
bushing is square with the bore, Also said to use even pressure to press it into the
end then push the steel insert in.

The red bushing shows less than I thought it would.




Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

The old bushing came out rather easy, I don't have a press so I went the old fashioned way with a hammer and socket and it came right out.

Again with no press...I got the poly in using a 1/2" piece of all thread some large washers and nut son each side then after many attempts I got it in. Then just lightly tapped in the metal sleeve.

The hardest part about the poly is that it is too stiff to fold and shove in by hand and not stiff enough to press in, it was deflecting and getting out of shape. I tried pressing it in with a large vise and wood which works great pressing in bearings not so much with the poly... I'm interested how the press works for you.