You don't need a new radius arm. All you need to do is remove the 1 1/8" nut on the back of the radius arm. You need to either unbolt, or remove the rivets, on the bracket thats already there.

A Haynes manual will be a worthly investment. They tell you how to do this, as well as many other items. You can also use the search function of this website for radius arm bushing replacement and words like that (check other forums too). Just get new brackets, new bushings, and make sure you have the little heat shield for the passanger side. The exhaust will melt the bushing in some instances.

 

89MustangGX,

Jeff's Bronco Graveyard has new radius arm brackets for 43 bucks
ea. Only 4 rivets on each bracket and your home free. Good luck with your project.


Big Brown Ford
1992 F150 XLT Supercab 4x4, 5.0
6" lift/ 33's winter, 35's summer
Superlift TruSpeed Sensor

 

Well, I got my parts in today -- I ordered them all from RockAuto and they were excellent, as well as being the chepaest around. My Ford dealer was a few bucks cheaper on the brackets, but I would have had to buy all new bolts seperately, so I figure at the very least I broke even there.

Any way, I went to town on the project -- and it took me about 6 hours total to do it all. Wow! Those bolts are on tight! I took a propane torch to them to get a little heat in them and they were still really tough! I started with the passenger side first (worst) and had to pry the old bracket out, as well as pound on the new one and pry it in. I did eventually get it in as well as adding a heat shield which wasn't on before -- apparently from the last time the bushings were changed. The driver's side went alot better -- though I think it's because I figured out that shock is bad. I was able to just pull the arm down and push it up which made for easy removal and installation. I torqued all the bracket bolts to 70 pounds and the radius arm nuts to 100 pounds per the instructions.

The brackets I took off were both cracked starting from where the radius arm mounts and moving outward with the passenger side actually having a huge piece missing! I was glad to fix that! The bushings that i took out weren't rubber at all, they were hard white plastic. I don't know if this contributed to the demise of the brackets or not, but they weren't poly that I could tell -- just VERY hard, and definitely some sort of plastic.

Final results are that putting the new rubber bushings in and brackets from Moog are excellent. There is no more popping and banging in the front end (which my truck has done for years), and the truck feels alot smoother, especially at speed. No more "binding" on sharp turns. Very positive experience...though it was alot fo work it was worth it by far.

Thanks again for everyone's help -- it was definitely a worthwhile experience and a learning one as well.

Any final thoughts from anyone?

Adam

 

89MustangGX (Adam) and everyone else who posted on this thread. Thanks for all the excellent info. I have the same problem and am now ready to tackle the job with the knowledge needed, and at least 6 hours, eh?
This is one of the best threads I've seen yet.

 

One thing if you're going to order from RockAuto -- the two different bushing sets that are in there. Someone mentioned before that one part superceded the other...these are the parts I ordered and they were the exact ones I needed.

MOOG K8729 $ 2.66 $ 0.00 1 $ 2.66
MOOG K8777 $ 30.79 $ 0.00 1 $ 30.79
MOOG K8776 $ 30.79 $ 0.00 1 $ 30.79
MOOG K8361 $ 24.79 $ 0.00 1 $ 24.79

I can take pictures of my old ones if anyone's really interested -- but let me just say after taking them out and seeing how much worse they were than I thought -- I'm VERY glad I did this.

Adam

 

Adam, I love an happy ending. Good job.

Later,