Since I bought my recent '95 F150 2wd it has had a strange bounce sensation when hitting a bump. New shocks didn't affect it. As I was rotating the tires the other week I grabbed the tires to check ball joints. They were tight, but the whole axle seemed like it was moving. Hmmmm. The radius arm bushings had already been replaced.

I ordered up a pair of beam bushings(parts guy said he has never sold a set).
I jacked one side up, removed the pivot bolt, jacked the spindle up which lowered the bushing side for easy working space. My air chisel made quick work of getting old bushing out. I had gathered up some metal pieces from work to make an installation tool, along with a piece of 1/2" all thread/nuts. After aligning the bushing and hitting the nut with the impact the bushing went in with little fuss. I completed that side and did the other and had it all on the ground in about 1.5 hours.

WOW...what a difference. It rides much better, no more "bounce" when you hit a bump. It steers firmer also. The truck only has 67K miles on it, but those original bushings were toast.

In all it was a pretty easy project that anyone can do in the driveway with basic hand tools. I'm thinking it is something that gets overlooked plenty of times when it comes to front end issues.

 

Great info. Glad to see the end results were positive.

 

Glad it went well for you, I just did my 95 F250 4x4 a couple of months ago and it was about 8 hours over 2 days to get those things out and back in, and I had the ball joint remover tool what a PIA.

 

Mike1, I had thoughts that it was going to be a disaster once I got into it. My installation tools were just two rings, one that fit the flange side just right and the other was just large enough for the bushing to slide through it. A piece of all thread and two pieces of 3/8" plate for support. I figured that maybe they made something similar to do it that could rent at Autozone but I tried my way............and it worked! Sometimes the blind squirrel finds a nut?