How do you replace the radius arm bushing on a 66 twin I-beam without pulling axle or shock and spring? Possible?

 

I did this two summers ago and I believe the answer is no. But then again, I was replacing a few other things so I had to remove everything. And I was doing it in my driveway.

 

My crazy cousin once did it by chaining the truck to one tree and using a winch to pull the ibeam/radius arm forward till he could get the new bushing on. And then let it spring back in place. I don't know whether he sprung the ibeam, the frame or anything else. But I would NOT recomend that.

You can do them the way I did, by dropping off the ibeam/spindle and radius arm as a unit. That way you can replace the axel pivot bushings as well. But it is a 3 man job, becuase that whole thing weights plenty alltogther and pressing in the pivot bushings (you need a press or a big vice) is tough. Of course, if you get it apart and it looks OK, then save yourself the trouble. But once you are there, may as well get it over with unless they are really good looking.

I would go with the polyurathane radius arm bushings as opposed to the stock rubber ones. Especially if there is some wear on the radius arm or the frame mounts.

 

If the avle pivot bushings are good it should not be able to be done. You can do it just dropping the shock and axle pivots (oh and the axle hanger limit hook thingy) but leave the spring bolted on. Thats how i did mine last summer. Autozone had DYNA poly bushings in stock.

44

 

In a 66 I believe that the spring will not be bolted in at all. Unless the year where the spings got bolted in was 66. In 65 they still just fall out once you drop the axel (by removing the axel retaining thingy as 44dwarf puts it).

 

I'm in the middle of doing my front end swap, I did'nt find it was that big of a deal to drop the whole front end. definitely change anything that looks worn. I'm no pro at this just my input.

 

I replaced mine this summer. I removed the rivets that hold the brackets to the frame and replaced them with bolts when I put them back together. I have replaced them on my 78 and 95 as well with the same technique with good results. When you put the new bushings back in you have to use a good size drift to align the holes but just catch one at a time and take it from there. If you support the frame with a jack stand and put your floor jack under the front suspension you can get it to almost line up for you if you play around with it a little with the height of the wheel etc... Have fun. It is very worth whil doing!

 

Just last week I got the front suspension almost completely back in. I had removed the spindles to use the 75 model units for disk brakes and power steering.

I bolted the radius arm and Ibeam together, then just set the end of the radius arm into the mount and lifted it all up and used the 65 hanger to keep the assembly more or less supported. Then went to the other side and pressed, lifted and pried the radius arm end into alignment in the bracket.

I used all poly bushings in the Ibeam and the radius arm, which made it a little stiff to work with, but still workable for one guy. Then I pressed the spindle end of the Ibeam down so I could get the spring inserted and used the 75 spring retainer system to hold it in place. It has a much longer bolt and two spring washers to sandwich the lower coil of the spring.

Is it OK to use the "65 axle hanger limit hook thingy" AND the 75 spring retainer plates that hold the spring onto the IBeam and radius arm? Looks like they wil work OK together to me. Just wondering.

Next will be bolting up the 75 spindles with new kingpins and then mounting the disk brake rotors and calipers. Hopefully this weekend.

Yesterday I sanded and cleaned up the engine compartment and then sprayed it with rust converter so I can paint it. The engine bay had a lot of light to moderate surface rust on the wheel wells firewall and core support.

Chris

 

Thanks that helps a lot.

 

You can cut the rivits on the recievers and bolt them back with grade 8 bolts. Newer trucks are bolted in.

John