I am looking for any guidance or suggestions on this small problem that my '01 Excursion has developed. My truck is an '01 7.3L Powerstroke 4x4 with 186K miles. The truck has lived its life in Nevada & California until last year, so there is absolutely no rust anywhere. I have one body mount bushing under the passenger side front floorboard that has apparently gone bad (sits on the other side of the frame rail from the exhaust pipe) & I'm not getting very far with finding someone to fix it. The noise is getting worse & is driving me insane & probably isn't safe to drive much longer either. I've watched youtube videos & those guys make it look super simple, but somehow, I don't think it will end up that easy for me. I don't want to get into it & then not be able to finish it & really be screwed. I've found one suppler who sells the bushing kit for a massive $700. They are not available from Ford at this point.

Has anyone run into this & how or who did you get to handle it? I've called several shops & most of them won't touch it. I found a diesel shop today that will do it, but for $2700 which seems to be overly excessive. They claim that it is 10+ hours of labor & the rear a/c lines have to be removed along with the entire interior. I'm taking it out to a fabrication shop tomorrow who said that they'd do it, but would need to see the truck before quoting anything because they are concerned about rust, which this truck doesn't have. I've been wrenching on cars for decades & I can tackle most things, so for those of you who may have done this yourself, what tools did you need & how did you handle jacking the body off of the frame to swap out the mounts?

Any suggestions, recommendations, or assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

Energy Suspension, love it.
I bought the full kit to replace everything.
all of the little nuisance things went away, body noises on bumps, it is tight now, pulling a trailer has No Sway at all.

 

Thanks for the product suggestion! Did you do the work yourself or did you have a shop do it? It seems like it would be simple, but I'm trying to figure out why everyone says it's 10 hours or more of labor.

Thanks

 

at 81, my days of crawling under a truck are gone.

and having fallen out of a fire truck in 2006 with a heatstroke, I can't handle temps over 80*F anymore.... and no shop or lift....

I have a local mechanic who loves old stuff, no computers for him, he uses a Screwdriver to listen for problems

he did the work, was very economical I thought,

just found the receipt, but he overhauled the front axle hubs, bearings, u-joints, installed new everything, brakes, rotors, etc...
installed the 6.0 ATF cooler, and the complete Energy Suspension kit for $1,000 in labor...

plus at the same time, he installed the ARM Research Electric hidden steps...

that was for everything he did,

I bought most of the parts in advance, and we have an agreement, my work comes AFTER everything else is the shop needs to be done.....
if someone comes in while he is working on my truck, and they need "this fixed now"

my truck sits idle until the shop work falls off, and he can get back to it.

 

I believe that there are two different materials used: silicone and polyurethane. Silicone is a little softer than the poly. I chose the poly because I wanted as solid of platform for towing.
Change all of them out. You will actually gain a minimal height increase.

 

I used the S&B Filters Silicone body mounts when I had to have the body lifted to repair oil leaks in the engine. R&R of the oil pan required the engine removed which required the body lifted. With all that going on I decided to replace most of the items around the engine that otherwise would have been more costly in labor. Included in that project was replacing the body mount bushings. The body comes off pretty easy, at least the shop made it look easy.

I went through the same conundrum, deciding whether to get silicone ($900 at the time) or polyurethane for less than half the money. Searching around FTE and asking a few questions basically boiled down to what kind of ride I wanted. One person even commented the polyurethane mounts were not only stiff (goof for towing heavy I guess) but even had a tendency to squeak, or a comfortable quiet ride. I chose the latter despite the price premium for comfort, quiet ride and no squeaking.

They don't have to remove the whole interior. Tips: The body mount bushings are located on each side by the engine, under the floorboard each side behind the front wheel-well, two under the carpet under each side of the second row seats, and for under the rear cargo area there are four for a total of 12 bodycount bushings total. All they have to do is remove the second row seats and lift the carpet to access. The entire body only needs to be lifted enough to slide the old ones out and new in.

Here is what I used: https://sbfilters.com/products/body-...2003-excursion

 

Thanks for the information. The S&B bushings are $700 & then they want 10 hours of labor. It truly doesn't sound like that much to me, especially if I remove the 2nd row seat & rear carpet for them. They keep mentioning rusted mounts & having issues getting them out, but this truck has zero rust (the last guy even said that it doesn't have the amount of rust you could find on a 10 year old truck, much less 23 years old). Until last July, the truck has spent its entire life in Nevada & southern California. They are used to seeing Excursions around here slam rotted out because that is what they do here on the east coast & the reason I purchased this one when I fell into the deal.

They seem straight forward, but I don't have a jack that would allow me to lift the body up & I'm afraid of running into an issue and then ending up screwed. The last person who looked at it on Friday said that the silicone ones were better because OEM type one would need replacing again in 10 years. I'm doubting that since these made it to 23 years & 185k miles. The very front 2 are dry rotted, but the other 7 mounts & bushings look fine. Even this one looks fine, but I'm guessing after all of this time sitting next to the exhaust pipe & where all of the heat off of the engine sits, this one is gone from the inside. As for ride, it's a super duty ford so you will never get a smooth ride out of it & that's ok. It spends a lot of time with a car hauler & car behind it which tends to smooth it out quite a bit anyway. The squeak would drive me nuts though.

On another note, what kind of oil leaks did you have that required lifting the body off or was it just the oil pan gasket? I fixed a bad fuel line, resealed the fuel bowl & high-pressure oil pump last year & other than a tiny bit coming from I don't know where, it doesn't leak. Well, that is unless I park it anywhere but over its pee pad in the garage. This think can drop a spot of oil on demand. If I park it in the driveway or even in the garage without a pee pad under it, it will drop one single drop out of the bell housing cover hole. It is the damnedest thing I've ever seen. It will go a month & not drop any on the pad but the very first time it is parked somewhere else all bets are off! It just knows how to tweak my OCD, LOL.

 

Oh man, I'm not sure I want height increase!!! This thing clears the top of the garage door by maybe 3 inches. The roof rack bars had to come off or else it wouldn't clear & those things don't sit very high off the roof. I do a lot of towing which was the whole point of buying it, so I need stability. A smooth ride is an unreal expectation because it is a super duty ford & that's ok. It gets used like a truck & not a butt hauler. If I want a nice butt hauler & comfy ride, I bring the BMW out, LOL.

 

The Ex comes out of the factory more than 1,500 pounds heavier than a comparable year/wheel base F350 and has a spring rate between an F250 and an F150. You already have the “soft” ride. Ford wanted to appeal to the soccer moms.
The increase I am talking about is maybe a 16th of an inch, if that.
Call Junior at ATS Springs in PA. He will give you the best options. He really helped me with our Ex.

 

Awesome, I will give them a call tomorrow! If this is already the "smooth" ride, I'd hate to see it without it.....haha! The ride doesn't bother me because its a truck & that is what it gets used for. The previous owner put slightly bigger tires on it to boot, so that makes a little bit of difference too. Nothing like a set of large BFG ATKO that you can't balance 100% for any length of time. Plus, I forget that it isn't my BMW, so I am hard on the front tires by throwing it into curves too hard, so they tend to cup some. These soccer moms today would not be caught dead in something like this because they want plush & wimpy (or should I say useless). Can you imagine giving one of these things to some soccer mom after she has been driving a newer vehicle. Not only is it NOT smooth, but these old fords came from the factory with built in steering drift. You don't just point one of these things, you have to actually drive it to keep it where it belongs. I grew up on Broncos, F-150s & F250s so it's all good.

 

A couple of things that crossover between a 2 WD and a 4x4 are the lower steering shaft and steering box. From a 2WD prospective, our tracking was really bad. Two things helped: PSD steering box that is built from scratch and not reman. You have to use GM fluid, though. And a Borgeson steering shaft which replaces the “rag” joint with a metal u-joint. There is no”rag” to disintegrate.
I had to replace everything else with Ford Motorcraft except for SPC ball joint shims/bushings. But that is only applicable to 2WD.
Good luck with your project.

 

Are you physically fit enough to change a tire and do an oil change? If so, that's about the level of hardness changing a body mount is. On some days I can barely walk, so I can't do those 2 simple things. Most other days I can. This is still a job I will tackle...just wait on a good back day.

I highly recommend buying a plumbers torch. $20-30 at Lowes. After 20yrs, the bolts are most likely seized. despite the truck having zero rust. 30 seconds of heat will loosen them right up most of the time. remove all the bolts before you swap any bushings.

to make clearance between body and cab mount, use a chunk of wood. I've got a scrap of 4" post about 12" long I use with my floor jack. place close to the cab mount and lift the body 1-2" so the old bushing falls out and the new can squeak into place. rinse/repeat until they're all swapped. then go through and tighten down. watch your body panels and gaps. ideally nothing moved, but you may need to scooch a few things here and there. make sure everything is aligned before you torque em back down.


this is a fairly easy job. it just takes some time. 10 hrs is overkill for a shop. I'd allocate 3-4hrs at home doing it in the driveway. don't forget to put heat on the bolts. I did a 2012 F-250 last year that lived in FL it's whole life. ZERO rust. even with heat we ended up breaking 3 of the 6 cab bolts. They had seized on pretty badly. Otherwise the job went easily

 

Don't wait... learn how to create good back days. Read the book Back Mechanic by Dr Stuart McGill. Worth its weight in gold. Coming from a 33 year old who blew his lower back out at 23, spent 7 years in agony unable to do much of anything had a disc replacement only to go back into daily pain until I read the book and was able to return to weight lifting, solo wrenching on cars, etc since 2021.

 

My concern is that my life never works that easy! Rule of thumb is I have to triple the time it takes because that is just how it works. My back will not like me no matter the day, so that is what it is!

Now with that said, do you think I could get away with doing one side at the time from start to finish which would hopefully eliminate any possible shifting of the body. Or could I even get away with doing the front four first & then doing the mid & rear six?

 

Just do them in pairs as time permits. Unless they’re extremely degraded, the height difference pre->post won’t be terrible.

Honestly doesn’t matter except when doing radiator supports and front cab mounts. Could pinch the gap for fender to door gap if large height difference. So maybe do those 4 together

worst case, the retained nut breaks loose. Grind it out. Go to Lowe’s and buy replacement bolt/nut. Back in business for a few bucks.

Grinding/cutting them out isn’t fun. Not a game ender. Just frustrating