radius bushings repeat problem
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Joined: Apr 2009
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radius bushings repeat problem
'91 Explorer, 4.0, 4WD, manual (good shocks, good springs, good brakes, good tires, frame straight, ball/tie joints tight, hole trough the crossmember looks good)
Bought the truck with the radius arm off center going through the crossmember. Automaticly thought bad bushings (it's a Ford). The driver's side was fine and tight. On the passenger side, the oustside (both ends) looked fine, but the rubber inside the crossmember was gone (gone-gone, just some dust). And it does have the heat shield. Replaced both with rubber replacements (okay start laughing) last Christmas. 10 months and 30K miles later, within a week the toe-in and camber went to crap. Crawled under and the passenger side looked good until I jacked it up. Loose and no rubber inside the crossmember.
I plan on doubling up the washers to tighten (crush) the bushing even more. But still, even rubber bushings shouldn't have gone bad so soon. Any guesses out there on secondary problems?
Bought the truck with the radius arm off center going through the crossmember. Automaticly thought bad bushings (it's a Ford). The driver's side was fine and tight. On the passenger side, the oustside (both ends) looked fine, but the rubber inside the crossmember was gone (gone-gone, just some dust). And it does have the heat shield. Replaced both with rubber replacements (okay start laughing) last Christmas. 10 months and 30K miles later, within a week the toe-in and camber went to crap. Crawled under and the passenger side looked good until I jacked it up. Loose and no rubber inside the crossmember.
I plan on doubling up the washers to tighten (crush) the bushing even more. But still, even rubber bushings shouldn't have gone bad so soon. Any guesses out there on secondary problems?
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 251
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From: Ft. Worth, Tx
How much torque did you reinstall the bushings with? I installed the lifetime hard plastic bushings in my 1993 with the large recommended torque and they lasted 5-10 years. When I heard the shift thump and pried the bushing to verify, I knew I d/n want to pull the bushings again. As you did, I machined the ID of 1/8th thick washers to make sure all of the force would be applied to the bushings. This experiment lasted over 5 years w/o a problem before I traded trucks. The rubber probably wears faster or lose it’s quality faster.
I feel there could be enough movement in the front-end to get the wear w/o having secondary problems. My problem was on a 2-WD but I worked off-road and over curbs a lot. jow
I feel there could be enough movement in the front-end to get the wear w/o having secondary problems. My problem was on a 2-WD but I worked off-road and over curbs a lot. jow
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