I have a 96 EB Bronco and the radius arm bushings need to be changed ASAP. I have heard of people having to drill out rivets somewhere on either the arm or bracket. I looked up under mine and it appears the brackets are bolted to the frame. What should I be looking for to install some new ones?

 

So, if I understand correctly, you looked where the crossmember attaches to the frame, and saw only bolts holding it together, correct? Is it possible that the RA bushings have previously been replaced and someone has already removed the rivets?

 

Hi-
If they're bolted on, great- it'll be easy to unbolt them and put in the new bushings. If you find rivets you can torch or die grind the heads off and use an air chisel with a pointed bit to drive them out. But I recommend having a helper and a strong come along. Chain the back of your truck to a tree and use the come along off another tree from the front. With the large nuts on the back of the radius arms off, the come along will yank them out of the brackets. Then you can guide the threaded part of the arm back in as your buddy lets out the come along. Do one side at a time, it's pretty easy.

 

just did mine on saturday. used an air chisel to chisel my rivets off and a punch attachement to knock the rivets out and used grade 8 bolts to reattach the bracket back to the frame after i changed the bushings.

 

On my 1971 F-100 here is how I did my radius arm brackets.

Drill a small (maybe <3/32) hole all the way through the rivet or at least enough to go below the surface of the bracket. I wanted to avoid using an air hammer chiesel on my cast iron brackets.

Then grind the rivets off to the surface. Then using the previous drilled hole for a good center, keep drilling out the rivets step by step until you get to the 3/8 size. Then take an air hammer and knock the rest of the rivet shell out. You want to make sure you get the head off of the back side.

On "hidden" rivets near the radius arm, your only choice is to drill them out by pulling the radius arm to one side so you can get a clean shot drilling.

I place a bolt and nut in each hole as I drill it out and tighten them up snug, but, not enough to stretch them. Then when I have everything drilled out, I remove them all except the one farthest back on the top of the frame, it acts like a pivot and with a jack you can lower the arm without anything springing back.

I found it useful to put the side I was working on unto a floor jack so it had some movement, especially when tightening the radius arm castle nut. That way the nut does not have to work against the axle while it is sitting on a high traction surface to pull the axle into alignment.

On one side I used a hi-lift jack (placed on jackstands) to push the axle forward by placing it against the axle and transfer case cross member (use #1002!).