it might be easier if his truck had a bed, being a bronco the whole bodywould have to be lifted off the frame, and further complicating things, the bronco has a larger fuel tank than a 1/2 ton pickup would have.

 

Thanks for the clarification....when I read his original post a few days ago, I saw the mention of the "big bronco forum"; but today I didn't reread through it completely(just saw "truck")....oops.

I still think the dremel-type tool could work. It's a lot eaiser to handle in those tight spaces without worrying so much about it kicking out suddenly like a grinder--if you can maneuver a grinder in there.

Edit: to loosen that bolt, you could try soaking it in PB blaster then drive around on it for a couple of days, possibly breaking the rust seal between the bolt and bushing. (if you've fixed that break line...)

 

heh, nope the brake line isn't fixed yet, and the bracket is so broken that I don't really want to drive it until it's replaced. I'm going to go ahead and drop the tank this weekend and get another bracket for the other side so that I don't have to do this again in a couple years.

 

Sounds good....better to do both and not worry about them....good luck!

 

ok, it's been over a month since I updated this thread, but I thought I'd let you guys know how it's going. Hopefully someone else can get some benefit from my trial and error

I finally bought a real grinder to get those rivets off. I hat to cut off one of my exhaust pipes in order to get clearance... but I don't really like that dual-exit look anyway. I used a sawzall and some 18tpi blades to cut the old bracket off in pieces, then pounded flat everything that I couldn't cut off. A BFH is a very good tool . This gave me enough clearance to get that angle grinder in there and destroy the rivet heads fairly quickly. Then the air chisel punched them out with no problem.

Since my old spring hanger had rusted through, the shackle bolt was free from the hanger without removing the nut. This presented a problem. After several days of re-applying penetrant and trying every which way to loosen that bolt, I gave up. My steel cutter made quick work of removing the bolt ends. I then though I would be able to punch the bolt out of the bushing... no such luck. The bolt had fused to the inside sleeve of the shackle bushing.

Well, crap. How do you get a bolt out of a bushing if it's fused? Turns out you have to destroy the bushing. I used a few drill bits (they kept breaking off) to drill out the old bushing. The cordless drill I had was useless in this effort, so I bought a high-speed air drill. Tool #4,184 bought for this project . I then went to my friendly ford dealer and bought a new bushing and new shackle bolt. When the parts guy brought me the new bushing, I noticed that it had a metal sleeve on the outside. My old one did not, and I explained that to him. He replied that all Ford bushings have that, so he was sure it would work. ~$28 later, I brought the new parts home ready to install and drive!

ugh. the bushing did *not* fit. Turns out that Ford made two types of shackles. One came with the bushing molded in, the other was modular, meaning that the bushing was a seperate part. They sell replacement bushings for the second type, and they sell replacement shackles for the first type. The cost for a new shackle is only about $15 more than the bushing... but I decided not to get one. Replacing the shackle means destroying the bolt on the other end and replacing the spring bushing. Rather than take a chance on causing myself to need a new spring, I called JBG.

http://www.broncograveyard.com/

These guys rule. Not just because they sponsor this board, but because they are helpful, cheap, and fast. Today I ordered a new bushing (polyurethane) designed specifically to fit a shackle like mine. Of course, the product is a Daystar product, but JBG helped me figure this thing out and found the right part for me in less than 10 minutes. Assuming that it works as it should, my baby should be back on the road this coming weekend. Thanks, JBG.

I'll update again once I have everything back together. I wish I had been taking pictures this whole time. If anyone needs help with this sort of project, let me know. I have approached it from every possible angle, and I now know what works

 

I have a 95 ford f150 and had the back hangers break, I found this out when I hit a pot hole and the springs bounced off the bed and I almost lost control. I used a grinder to grind off the old rivets and replaced them with factory ford ones. I didn't need to move the gas tank and found the grinder method to work well with the proper safety equipment. I paid 125 for all the parts to do both sides.

check my profile for my hanger break.

 

I noticed that the ones on my 94' are almost rotted halfway through. Fortunately I need to replace the front gas tank and fix some rust on the wheel arches so I may just pull the bed and have someone do the welding while I fix the shackles. Good to know the dealer prices aren't too awful on this one.

How do you support the truck during this? I'm guessing I'll have to jack the truck at the frame rail...not sure how I'll do this since it already sits about 2' off the ground.

Bryan

 

you need a high-lift jack and some big jack stands. I got mine at www.harborfreight.com

as for removing the gas tank to get to the hanger rivets... I have a Bronco. The F-150 has a longer wheelbase, so the gas tank doesn't have to block these rivets. On the Bronco, the gas tank is squarely in the way. Anyhow, the job is done now and I'm back on the road. Before long, I'll be dropping the tank and doing the other one proactively.

 

Turns out since I have a deep drop bumper my trailer hitch is quite low to the ground and I jacked it on the hitch frame and I was able to get enough lift to unload the shackles. The hard part is the two 13/16" bolts, the rivets are easy using either a air hammer or sawzall. I bought a grinder but there were alot of sparks...too many that close to the gas tank. The sawzall and air hammer produce no sparks and work just as fast.

Both big bolts were rusted in tight and took 4-500ft-lbs of force to break them free. I was using a 4ft breaker bar!

Bryan

 

Cinderblocks... ;-) lots of them, and either the jack stands on them, or some 2 by 4's or 4 by 4's on the top of the blocks.

 

Okay, both spring brackets are now installed! 9/16" bolts are NOT the same size as a 14mm, it took some careful persuasion to get them in the shackles but since I can't get 14mm x 250mm bolts in town, the 9/16" would have to work.

FYI, since the original fasteners on the brackets were rivets, and were replaced with bolts, I went and looked up the bolt torque specs for a 7/16" 14 threads per inch bolt to get the max recommended torque values(the shop manual won't have a torque spec. for these). There are two values, one for lubricated fasters and another for dry fasteners. These are MAX values, and my be well above what is really needed. I used a washer on the bolt head and a lock washer on the nut end as well as anti-seize on the threads, so I don't know if that affects these numbers either.

Grade 5 dry 54 ft-lbs
Grade 5 lubricated 60ft-lbs
Grade 8 dry 78 ft-lbs
Grade 8 lubricated 90 ft-lbs


I just can't believe how long it took to remove the old bolts out of the shackles...I needed a gear pulled pushing the bolt and a 24" breaker bar just to budge the bolt. I think I spent almost an hour on one bolt...could have done it faster but it would have damaged the leaf spring eye bushings.


Bryan