I did a search and found some of what I need to know, but not everything so here goes:

Can I reuse the stock bolts or is it better to buy some new ones?

On the crewcab, it does not look like you can get one of them without dropping the front fuel tank. Is there a way around this? Any things I should look out for (except my head) when I drop the tank?

On the front mounts, would it be easier to get to the bolt if I remove my headlights first? ( I'm replacing them anyway. )

I think that is all for now. The front bushings look like they have squished down at least 1/4 inch - really looking forward to having some good ones on under there! Thanks for your responses!!

 

OK. I looked closer at the front mounts and they aren't hard to get to at all. Anyone have advice on the rear mount above the fuel tank? That's the only one that really worries me - I've never pulled a fuel tank before.
Any advice is appreciated!

 

The rear one above the gas tank is not too bad. Just loosen the strap bolts to where about 1-2 threads are still showing out of the nut. This will give you enough room to put your hand up there to install the new bushing. You'll need a second person to help you. You can reuse the old bolts if they look good. Do one side at a time. Remove all the bolts, install them back in on the bottom side of the bushing about 4-5 threads, soak the bushings from the top with your favorite penetrant. On the mid and aft bushing will be easy to remove. I used a 2 ft long piece of 1/2" diameter rebar iron for a punch to knock out the metal inserts. The right front under the dash, you'll have to put a little bow in the rod to clear the dash. The left was the worst for me due to the dash coming out further on the drivers side. The bow was so great I kept bending the rod. I wound up using an airhammer with a pin punch, put the bolt in about half way and hit the top of the bolt. The front ones under the radiator support is where I really screwed up. I didn't know the inserts on the bushing were threaded and when I put the wrench on the I snapped the bolts. Thought they were just rusted in but after getting them out I found out differently. There is a nut on the inside of the radiator support that has to be removed first. Then you can remove the bolt. Once you have all the bolts out, I used a floor jack and a 1 foot long 4x4 to jack up the body enough to clear and remove the old bushing and install the new ones. Also under the radiator support, you may have some shims between the upper bushing and support, you'll need to reinstall them in the same place. Once you have all the bushings changed and bolts installed and torqued. You get to do the other side. I would start with the R/H side since it's the easiest and you'll get a feel for the work. And good luck.

 

Thanks alot!
I was thinking...When you put the truck in reverse and move backwards the engine swings up and barely touches the turbo to the firewall making an awefull racket. It also does this when braking.

So could I get a local machine shop to make some 1/2" steel plate spacers to go on top of all of the bushings? If I remember correctly there are enough threads left on the bolts for this. Do you think this would cause any problems? Of course I would also have to get some spacers for the bed. Does the bed have to rest it's whole length on the frame rail or can it be supported on it's mounting points?

 

I would check the motor and transmission mounts to see what condition they are in. The bolts should be long enough for the shims, only problem I see would be a slight misalignment of the bumpers. The bed rests on the frame with box beams that run left to right, so the shims there would cause no type of intergrity problem. They should be long enough also. Being a '91, I just hope there not to rusted to remove the nuts.

 

The tranny mount was replaced 6 months ago when it was rebuilt. I've peaked at the motor mounts before, but it's hard to tell if they need replacing or not. Under the hood the turbo is no more than 1/4" away from the firewall just sitting there so it doesn't have to move much to touch. We've already shifted the engine as far forward as it will go.

I had thought about the bumpers being a little off from the body. Do you think 1/2" would be very noticeable?

 

The motor mounts have a lock device that keeps the engine from coming off of it. If they've never been changed I would replace them anyway. Not that hard to do. And you'll notice a big difference also. The bumpers will be noticeable but you can probably loosen the bolts on the brackets and adjust some of the change out of it.

 

I just checked Advance Auto and motor mounts are $48.00 apiece!!! Does this sound about right?

 

That sounds about right. You have a heavy duty engine. Takes a big mount. If you want just change the side that the turbo is on. Then the other one later.

 

I checked the mounts today and they appear to be fine - aren't any softer than the tranny mount that is almost new. What I need to do is get someone to run through the gears while I get under there and watch the mounts to see what's happening.

About the 1/2" shims, only every other cross rail on the bed is bolted through. Half of the rails are supported just by a thin plastic disc the pushes into a hole in the chassis to keep it in place. I could get a long piece of steel made that would just run along the frame and the bolts through every other bed support would hold it in place. I also will have to get longer bolts for the bed as they only have 1/4" of threads left to play with.

I will check the movement in my motor mounts first before I go with the body spacer idea.

I checked the front bumper and it can easily slide upward on it's mount 3/4". The rear bumper is custom made and welded on (previous owner did that mess). However it is bent down from someone putting too much weight on it and I was going to have it straightened out anyway; it won't be too much trouble to get it moved up a little at the same time.

My body mounts won't be here for 2-3 weeks so I hope to have everything figured out and possibly fabricated before they come. I've been spraying all of the bolts down with BP Blaster so hopefully they won't be too bad to get off.

 

I just remembered, when you replace the mounts, it's going to lift the body up a little bit. One way to tell is look at the body line from the cab to the bed. Mine went up almost a 1/4" after the new bushings. This may help with your turbo contact problem.

 

Yeah, I mentioned that in my first post. The very front ones look like they are squashed pretty good and the other don't look too good. I'm just not sure that little bit will be enough to move away from the turbo.
After I check the motor mounts tomorrow I'll have a little more info to work with.

 

I checked the motor mounts and the passenger side one moves a good bit. (It gets pulled on in reverse & braking) I'm going to replace just that one and forget about spacing the body. I think that the new motor mount along with body mounts will cure the turbo problem. Too bad they don't make poly motor mounts for this engine.
Thanks alot for your help. I will try to get some pictures and post my results when I get through.

 

Thought I would post an update. I didn't get any pictures taken of the process, mainly because I just forgot to take my camera with me.
It took a couple months for Daystar to get the bushings to me and then a few weeks for me to get the time to work on it.

Anyway, We tackled the engine mounts first and they weren't too bad. With the Banks turbo there is barely enough room to jack the engine up and wiggle the mounts out. It took longer on the passenger's side because we had to remove the starter to get the mount out. All in all it took about two hours to do the motor mounts.

The body mounts took a long time to replace. The metal flange thing was pressed into the body badly on all four rear and middle mounts. On the middle mounts we ran the body bolt through a piece of five inch "C" channel that was about four feet long and pryed against the frame to pull it down. Let me tell you that the easiest way to do this is to take a long punch inside the cab and hit the end of the bolt about ten good times to loosen things up. Then one person has to stand on the end of the "C" channel and another get a large slege hammer and hit the "C" channel on the very end until it pops out. It still took about 5-10 good hits before the metal flange broke loose.

On the rear mounts we used the same "C" channel but because the mounts are on the inside of the frame we had to pull up on the channel instead of push down. We put a floor jack under the "C" channel and jacked it as high as it would go without hitting the bottom of the cab then took a long punch inside and a few hits and those popped off. It's amazing how much force it took to break those things loose! The Ford engineer responsible for these body mounts ought to be smacked in the head a couple good times!

So, after the engine mounts, body mounts, axle pivot and radius arm bushings my first time driving it was like driving a new truck! It rides and handles MUCH better, like a truck should! The body mounts are very stiff though, so twisting the frame (pulling out of an angled driveway) makes the body twist also and the roof pops pretty good. My dashboard also started squeeking on the passenger's side. However, the way it drives and handles on the road more than accounts for the new noises it makes. I hope someone finds this helpful.