Hi all! 96 3 liter 2 wheel drive here 246k. Had a run of bad luck lately. U joints started shaking her really bad before i could replaced em. Just replaced sway bar endlinks. She stopped shaking for a little bit now the rear end is off the hook. Looked her over and it turns out to be the main rear suspension arm (3pt contact). I've been looking around the popular sites and found the 2 bushing kits, but have yet to find the actual arm, according to the service manual the bushing that's giving me problems doesn't seperate from the arm. Anybody have any ideas where i might find such a beast?

 

This is a picture of what i'm looking for.

http://3ddepac.com/images/119b.jpg

 

may find a low mileage one in the junke yard emporium.

if you can find a willing Ford dealer, they can do a national search if they come up with the part #.
price will be shocking.

there used to be a forum member on here that was a retired Ford parts counter man. could find any part that every existed if there was still one on the face of the earth
went by something like partsnumberguy

take a look thru Energy Suspensions stuff
http://www.energysuspension.com/

good luck with the arm

 

The Ford parts guy's handle is numberdummy; you can do a search for his postings.

Which bushing is the one that you can't replace on that arm?

 

I went to the local ford dealer and the part has been discontinued. thanks for the lead on the numbers guy. I figured this item would put me into sticker shock. but she's worth it, still running strong after 246K. The bushing that isn't removable (according to the book) is where the arm hooks to the body just above the differential. guess i'll do some looking at the local yards as well.

 

The arm hooks to the body at two points, one with a pivot bushing and the other is a ram bushing. They're both above and slightly ahead of the axle. Since he ram bushing is attached to the frame, I'm guessing the one that the book says can't be removed is the front pivot bushing; the only one pressed into the arm.

I haven't looked too closely at mine, but I think that bushing is a typical rubber bushing with steel inner and outer sleeves. There are a couple of ways to remove it; if you have a press and the properly sized mandrels, you may be able to press out the old bushing. The other methods involve destroying the old bushing.

I used this method to replace the front upper control arm bushings: Get a carpenter's tool called a "cat claw", a small pry bar with a 90 degree bend on one end, and both ends sharpened to points. Put the points of the teeth of the bent end against whatever is sticking out of the control arm hole, and pound it through the claw with a small sledge hammer. The idea is to collapse it enough so it can be loosened from the hole that it's pressed into. Do it to both ends that out, and at a couple places around its circumference.

The other method is to burn out the rubber with a torch, and insert a smaller bushing into the old outer sleeve, or try to cut out the sleeve from the inside.

Before doing either destructive method, make sure you can get a replacement for the bushing, either from some place like Energy, or having one custom made. Either way, you would need to take careful measurements of the old shell.

 

Thanks xl. Torching sounds good to me! I'll be sure to measure and get the replacement before lighting the candle. I get to tear it apart tomorrow. Hopefully energy or someone of the like has one. I searched energy briefly and i didn't find anything for the aero but with a little bit of luck someone will have one besides the yard. I hate to get used bushings but used is better than none. Thanks again for the advice.

 

I did not think that Energy would list something specific for the Aerostar, so that's why I suggested you take careful measurements of your old one and try to find one that matched in Energy's catalog. I had to do that with the front sway bar bushings.