When I did mine I did everything in the front end but the brakes. I left those intact and pulled the backing plate and hung it from the frame on a wire. It seems like it would be a tight squeeze with the brake line on. If it needs to go, yes. Undo it at the frame.

 

I left my brake lines on

 

Ok. So I got my radius arm bushings on......when reading other posts on here I found the radius arm nut is to be torqued between 80 to 120 lb/ft. I set my torque wrench to 90 and I ran out of thread on the radius arm before hitting the torque. I talked to the parts man and he confirmed the moog k8101 is the correct listing in his paper catalog. When I check moog website this part number does not list the 65 in their figment list. I talked to moog technical support, and they were not sure of the discrepancy but confirmed the k8101 is listed for the 65 in the paper catalog. I tried adding a second washer to the radius arm that had a slightly larger inside diameter so it would clear the bore of the radius arm. But again, I ran out of threads before hitting 90 lb/ft. Any suggestions on what may be the issue? Is 90 lb/ft the correct torque?

 

I think you need Moog K8146 or NAPA HB1045K bushings. That is the correct torque.

 

Just to make some aware this method is not fool proof. I am now into the 2nd hour trying to put the first radius arm back in. Even with springs and shock out it was impossible to roll the wheel far enough forward using my arms and so I needed a tie down to ratchet it out. With the arm out in its out and down position it is impossible for anyone to manhandle back to the correct position to insert in the hole. Even with tie downs laterally and in the front one runs out of room before the front tire hits the lower corner of the fender. Someone else I told this about is having the exact same problem despite a sheet of the instructions. I learned I can't put the rubber bushing on first as the arm will not go straight in without damaging the bushing. So while the arm came out easy enough with the use of a tie down it isn't going back dead center when the bushing is on. So this 1 1/2 hour job could very easily be 8 hours. I'm sorry I told someone else this would be easy as he has learned.

 

Post pictures of what you're working with tbm3fan. I did those bushings last week and managed to manhandle them myself in about an hour, granted I was doing them along with kingpins and wheel bearings, so I had the whole front suspension apart at the time.

 

What I learned doing mine.
The first time I went at the radius arm bushings I actually used the winch on my other truck to pull the I beam forward ( spring and shock removed ) but that is what I was told what it would take. Don't do it! There is to much stress on the I beam pivot point.
Fast forward about a year.
Installing a 79 F250 set of beams and discs.
Take the time to drop the I beam pivot bolts and pull the I beam. From here there is no need for the winch and makes the whole process effortless. Good time to replace the pivot bushing to.

 

Yes, I wondered about the stress on that pivot bolt. I did drop the spring and eventually found that on the passenger side the wheel needed to be hard left. Even then there was 3/4" left in the bracket despite my legs on the tire. The tie down ratchet pulled the beam forward enough for the arm to pop out and it popped down and out. Slight damage to two threads that needed to be repaired. To get back in place needed a jack under the arm to raise, a tie down laterally to pull in to just center the threaded portion. Now the second tie down to pull backwards into the hole in order to get the back bushing on, the washer, and the bolt. Once the bolt was on I could use it to pull the last 1/2" in. This was a major process and there is a lot of tension on that arm. No way I could put it back without those tie downs and jack. Couldn't begin to move it up and in while moving the tire back.

For the moment I am going to leave the driver's side alone since the passenger side front bushing was smashed. At least I can move the truck to get the Cougar and Mustang out. I will no doubt do the pivot bushings but will I have to pull that one arm just done to now do the I beam pivot? Ugh! Driver's side no problem as all at once. Does Ford still make the pivot bushing??? Oh, and did you break the torque of the pivot bushing bolt with what??? In the meantime my spring housing looked like yours but not anymore.

 

Seems Ford no and Moog yes K8095

 

The shop manual says to remove the spring, disconnect the steering and remove the bolt that holds the radius arm to the axle. Then remove the radius arm. With that bolt out the axle only has to move a short distance forward to clear.. If you ever plan on a front anti sway bar, while all that is apart it is a good time to source the radius arms and brackets from a newer truck or van. I got all that stuff from a 78 F350.

 

In the process of reassembling front suspension on the 65 w/ the 390. Couple days ago found I was missing the nut that secures the bolt on the radius arm to axle, and a front shim. I spent an hour or so searching for these missing parts and decided to continue the next day, yesterday and after spending a couple hours going thru the CD and both 50 lb Master Ford truck catalogs I located the item numbers for the missing items. At the end of the day a friend dropped by wanting to borrow an over-sized socket and to my surprise the missing nut was inside the socket. In addition, last night I came across a similar thread where FTE member posted the question asking members to identify a part which turned out to be the front suspension shim C5TZ-5355-A and what was interesting is that there may be only a single shim for either the passenger, or drivers side so at the end of the 2 days I spent approx. 3 1/2 hours searching for items that were not missing and at my age searching for missing items is a favorite past-time as a 'do it myself' backyard mechanic, now it is a matter of recalling which side I removed the shim from?? .

Likely a couple of ways to remove radius arms, I placed a 4x4 across the front chassis in front of the engine, removed the shocks and lifted the front end until the springs dropped out, I probly would not have had to lift as high had I removed the I beam retainers(?) on each side. Purchased siphon system from Northern tools and found bead blast media worked best for cleaning, intend spraying the components with aspho today, apply coat of epoxy primer, then a top coat.

 

I eventually dropped the whole front suspension down and did everything instead. Radius arm, I beam, and new king pins. That worked the best for me. Now I did pass this method on to someone else who tried it and couldn't do it calling it nuts and questioning my mechanical skills since I passed "bad" information on to him. Nonetheless that implication really pissed me off. Clearly it can be a YMMV thing for some. One thing I learned was that the position I had the primary spring in has been wrong for 16 years after taking the brakes apart and placing back together with new parts duplicating what I had. Wasn't the PO cause I met him and he didn't have the skills for this.

Here is the link with an edit in the beginning and the comment at the bottom. I'll leave out the email.

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog...nsion-rebuild/