Hi Folks,
For those not following I have been having wandering steering issues even after replacing my steering box with a new red-head box. It's not the box of front end components as they all look good. I've narrowed it down to possibly radius arm bushings / shocks and or front axl i-beam bushings.

I'm going to start by replacing the radius arm bushings however I've never dealt with the radius arm before. Just looking at mine, it appears as if there are shims in the radius arm (like to top of the ball joint) for alignment purposes. Is this a normal things or is what I'm looking at something completely different?

I'm getting ready to do the bushings but don't want to mess up my alignment if that's the case. The truck is a 4x4.

On another note, once the bushings are replaced what is the procedure to torquing down the nuts holding the radius arm in place? Is there a torque spec and or procedure? I remember back to my GM cars the controls needed to be pre-torqued with no weight on the front end then when you drop the car with full weight on the front end go back and re-torqure the nuts. Just wondering if the same goes for the Ford radius arm. Any youtube vid's I've found don't discuss this.

Thanks in Advance!

 

The shop I took my truck to just drilled out the rivets in the radius arm brackets and replaced the bushings that way. It doesn't mess with your alignment that way. They replaced all the rivets with bolts and it's held up fine for 2-3 years so far.

As far as the torque spec, I'm not quite sure.

 

to the OP, sir, you are looking at the wrong end of the radius arm. the replaceable radius arm bushings are on the rearmost end of the arm, mounted below the cab. also, the bushings that locate the I beams themselves could be bad, they are located under engine crossmember. the bushings you are referring to are alignment caster/camber bushings, do not disturb them, but if removal of them is necessary, mark thier exact placement.