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I have the polyurethane "Prothane" set on the shelf. My cab is a little low on the right, not much but it's noticeable. I've measured the washers under the bushings, the ones with the nut incorporated. They are just under 3" OD, the lower rubber bushings swell out, more to 3-1/4". I have a few feet of Shedule 40 3" steel , it's 3" ID. This piece of well pipe is 3-1/2" OD. I've been telling myself that it needed to be bigger ... like 3-1/4" ID to work as a puller for the lower washers / bushings ... but it occured to me that once the threaded rod pulls the washer and inner collar loose, the lower bushing will just either compress and follow into the puller, or be destroyed. I have the threaded rod and nuts and washers.
I think that as long as the ID clears the washer part, tightening the nut is gonna pull it no matter what happens to the rubber bushing.
Sound right?
See below for updated answer, my pipe is 3-1/4" ID, it looked thicker walled but was because I had looked casually at the end cut with a roller pipe cutter. It was "swaged" inward.
It might work, but the rubber squished out might cause the puller to pull at an angle. The puller really needs to sit flush against the bottom of where the mount goes.
Give it a go, but be prepared to trim the rubber or have some pipe with larger diameter handy.
I used an exhaust tip that I "borrowed" from a out of business muffler shop.
Also, do you plan on reusing the bottom washers? If so, be prepared to spend some time cleaning them up and painting them as well as the uppers. I couldn't find any new ones for up top. I got new ones for the bottom from LMC. You will also want to clean and prep the frame where they go.
For some reason my piece of all thread didn't thread into the old ones all that well even though the new ones went on just fine. I had to use some vice grips to get it get enough of a bite in the nut to pull. I was afraid of it stripping out and putting me up s**t creek.
You remove the bolts from above, thread the all thread into the bottom washer with the nut, slip the puller over the all thread and the bottom washer and bushing, slip washers over the bottom end of the puller and thread on a nut. Tighten the nut to separate the bottom washer from the top, They interlock in the middle and can take quite a bit of force to separate. The upper and lower washers are sleeved as you can see in the pictures.
The last pic shows an original bottom washer after it came loose.
I forgot to mention in my above post, to have some large washers available for spacers/shims. Keep track of how many shims (if any) are used at each location.
Thanks for all of the responses. Tomorrow I'm gonna cut a piece, then I might weld 3 or 4 "legs" made of 1/8" x 1" wide straight steel, weld them flush to the exterior of my pipe to extend about an inch up past the bulging lower rubber. Thing is the well pipe has 1/4" thick wall, so it is 3-1/2" OD. This will give me a circle of "legs" 3-1/4" ID. I have a few nuts and a 36" piece of 7/16"-14 threaded rod ... and some 1/4" thick steel 4" discs that I once used to make elevated lower coil spering seats to rais a car an inch or so. I will need to get my behind seat storage out that I built so long ago, so that means my seats have to come out too ... to get to them bolts. I haven't put front fender liners back in yet, so the middle ones should be easy enough to reach. I haven't examined the core support front ones really close yet. I might lubricate the rubber bulge with Ru-Glyde and try the 3" ID pipe with a jack just "to see".
See my next post (#7) below, I took another look at that pipe I had, it'll work, I measured it more better. I even slipped it into place, all is good.
I think I can rig a little different puller for core support bushings, don't want to saw them.
Will that pipe fit in the pocket. I used 4" exhaust pipe cut a section out like 1/2" sqeezed it back together then welded a 1/4" cap on it with hole for bolt.
allthread as to soft and stripped out at the puller. Ended up welding to grade 8 bolts together to make my own all thread.
It does take alot of force.
2 of the upper washers peddled like a flower in the rubber. I pressed them back flat in the press.
2 came apart easy all thecrest were a battle.
Not a job I want to do again ever. Lol
Will that pipe fit in the pocket. I used 4" exhaust pipe cut a section out like 1/2" sqeezed it back together then welded a 1/4" cap on it with hole for bolt. ... etc ...
... Well, I was wrong! Do not tell my Wife.
That long pice of pipe that once mounted my C-band dish in the '90s, then which I repurposed (after cutting it flush with the concrete in the yard) for a DirecTV off the side of the house, the one I thought was 3-1/2" OD and 3" ID ? .... I found out that it looked that way because it was cut with a big roll type pipe cutter. Today, I used a cut off wheel and cut off a piece 8" long and it looked thinner at my cut, so I cleaned the swarf off and tried it under the truck, it's a snug slip fit over the rubber all the way to the frame steel. I measured it afterwards, 3-1/4" ID in reality. It's really only 1/8" walled.
So I'm ready to swap-out some bushings now ... just waiting on cooler weather.
Crawled under it 07-22-2022, too hot still but the core support bushings might not be as tough as I thought. I know that I'll need to loosen them, even pull bolts, but gonna have to think about pulling the bushings if they are put together like the others under the cab?
