I'm exactly about to replace that axle pivot bushings, as one basically exploded, any tips?.

 

Have a knife to carve out the old rubber. It's probably bonded to the beam.

 

I'd still use a hole saw as I mentioned before. 1st one side of the oval and then the other side. It's OK to then use the hole saw as a reamer to clean all rubber out of the metal shell. The poly bushing is going to fit in that oval metal shell and not move. So if the I.D. of the metal shell ends up a little rough (not smooth) it won't wear out the poly bushing.

 

I suppose another way that might work would be use a torch and burn the extra rubber out. But that has its own risks.

 

After I removed the steel sleeve from the pivot bushing on my '77 F100 front disc brake I beams, that I swapped into my '69 F100, I took the saw blade out of my hacksaw and inserted the blade through the hole in the bushing.

I reattached the hacksaw frame to the blade and made a cut downward through the rubber bushing, stopping just short of getting the blade into the thin metal bushing shell.

I made three more cuts into the bushing like this, 90° apart, to 'quarter' the rubber bushing. After I knocked the first quarter of the old bushing out, the other three quarters came out of the metal shell without too much fuss.

....least, that's how I did it.

 

See Ranger above regarding poly bushings.
They squeak and will drive you nuts.

 

Mine haven't so much as chirped yet

 

Depending how worn out the bushings are. using the hole saw method is the easiest way IMO. the beams I just got the bushings were so worn I used a punch and knocked the inner sleeve out then took a chisel and pried the rubber piece right out.

 

I blast them out in seconds with an air chisel.

 

Very useful those things....

 

Can it be done with the arms still mounted? I haven't found many pics of this.

 

Yeah, the radius arms don't have to come apart to do the pivot bushings.

 

Pivots can be done in the truck. Blast out the old one with an air hammer and press the new one in using a nut & long bolt type press.

 

No power/air tools of any kind, I finally did the deed with the help of a local mechanic . He happened to be around working on a neighbor's car and I lent him some tools, so he pitied me and gave me a hand to take the bushing out of the arm (by BFH/chisel submission), which he recommended me to take off immediately, definitely the way to go.

 

Sway bars weren't standard equipment until dent sides?