Monday I did a 4" front lift on my '86 F-250. Took about 12 hours but I wasted a few hours fighting stubborn rusted bolts and such.

Today the plan was to do the rear shackle lift (reverse shackle brackets from Sky). Got home from work and got started. I got the driver's side done. It was a bitch to get the rivets out of the frame but wasn't too bad. Took maybe 2 hours to do the drivers side.

Well a little while ago I called it quits on the passenger side. The bolt that goes through the shackle to attach it to the shackle bracket on the frame snapped when trying to loosen it. The inner side is rusted on solid. I cut the frame bracket for the shackle with a combination of angle grinder and sawzall and removed it. Cut off the nut and part of the remaining bolt stuck in the shackle.

I tried soaking in PB, applying heat, hitting it for long time with an air chisel to drive it through the shackle, drilling it out, and various other ridiculous things. I tried removing the shackle from teh spring but had no luck getting the other bolt out (shackle to spring). I figured maybe if I got it out I'd have better luck in a drill press or hydraulic press to press the broken bolt out of the shackle bushing.

Not sure how to proceed. I can probably get the shackle to spring bolt out and remove the shackle. That will take some time, and not sure I'll be any better off. I'm thinking tomorrow maybe I should get some good carbide drill bits and try to drill out the bolt with bits that won't dull in a few seconds.

Anyone else have any suggestions? I need my truck ASAP, because we have bad weather forecast and I'm gonna be riding my CB750 to work tomorrow, with a 60% chance of snow and high of 34*!

 

Alright, I have a plan... NAPA# NCP2747015

Rear shackle bushings. I hope they are what I think they are. If so I can just burn the bushing out of the shackle and replace it with the NAPA part. If these are the spring eye bushings... Well I'm hosed.

 

I just went through the same thing on my 84 F2fiddy. The only way to get them out is to burn them out with a torch. While I was at it, I replaced all of the spring eye busings with eurathane bushings.

The bolts and self locking nuts are still available from Ford. Only thing is: they are about $12.00 each.

BTW: you could have saved some money by just re-using your stock frame brackets (flipped). Even they are still available from Ford for about $35.00 each.

 

Sounds like I got lucky then.
I replaced both mounts and shackles 2 weeks ago and both came right out with a bit of heat and PB blaster.
Hardest part was cutting the dumb rivets.

 

Thats pretty close to what I paid for my brackets and shackles last month.
2 mounts and 2 shackles ran me just a tad over 100 bucks.
My left rear mount was so bad that the bolt literally tore loose from the mount and caught just above where it came loose.

 

I got the Sky shackle mounts for $100. Not too bad. They are much beefier than the stock mounts. So I'm happy with them.

I got the shackle bushings from NAPA today. They look like the same as what I need, but with a metal sleeve around the outside. Shackle itself is the shell of the bushing that's installed now. I will cut the shell of the new bushing and remove it, then burn out the old bushing and install the new one. I've got my fingers crossed!

 

They make two different styles. One with the steel sleeve and one without. Make sure you get the right ones because they are different diameters.

 

The ones they gave me had the steel sleeve. I cut the sleeve off but after that compression was taken off the rubber it was too difficult to get in the shackle. I shaved the bushing down until I could press it in the shaft, and it did not move after installed. Put it all back together and I'm good to go.

I also ordered a NOS shackle off eBay, so when that comes I'll just install that to be sure the bushing will work properly. At least now I won't be riding my CB750 in the snow like I did today, so it'll get me by for a couple days 'till the new shackle comes.