I've been having the shift clunk since I got my '91 back in November. Recently it has gotten a lot worse, so it moved up on my priorities list.

At some point I had looked under there and noticed that the passenger side radius arm bushing was gone, so I bought a set of bushings, thinking (hoping) that was all it would take.

Well, I put the truck in the garage, took the front wheels off, and had a real good look at things.

The hole the passenger side radius arm bolts through is partially destroyed. From about the ten o'clock position to the two o'clock position, the ridge of metal the radius arm goes through is just gone. The radius arm has been slamming back and forth and rubbing on things so badly that the washer (1/8" thick) between the nut and bushing has a huge notch worn through it, and the frame has a notch in it too where the washer's been rubbing.

As far as I can tell, the crossmember is shot. There's no point in replacing the bushing, because the notch in the radius arm hole is going to quickly destroy a new bushing.

So I'm looking at drilling out the rivets (which I probably would have had to do anyway to replace the bushings) and replacing the entire crossmember.

Don't let your bushings go for too long, folks! Once you hear that clunk when shifting into reverse, it's time to do something about it. Mine's been like this for who knows how many tens of thousands of miles. I'd bet it's the reason my Explorer was sent to an auction.

 

I was wondering: I think the reason this happened is because my radius arm is off-center. Any suggestions on how I correct that (and hopefully prevent the issue from recurring)? Do I need to have the front end aligned?