Hello,
I just bought a '66 bronco from my grandpa. The front end bushings are in serious need of repare so I went ahead and bought a urethane bushing kit that has the c-bushings, track bar, and radius arm bushings. I was wondering what the standard procedure for replacing these is? I'm a little worried about safety when I go to unhooking the radius arms. Will the front axle want to kick out to the front or the back? Do I need to have the suspension at full droop? Thanks for any help you folks can give. I'm wanting to take the old bronco out on the road, but it has a little too much slop in the steering right now. By the way, I already had to replace the driver side king pins and the u-joint in the driver side steering knuckle.

Thanks for your help,
Morgan

 

in my experiences, i always had the frame jacked up and then undid the radius arms, one at a time which really didnt move all that much, just a little forwards. the rest is simple..by the way i know where ur coming from with the sloppy steering but i like driving mine anyway

 

Jack up the front end and put jack stands under the frame. Jack up the axle to take the weight off of the spring on one side. Remove the upper coil tower bolts and strap, take the lower bolt from the shock mount off and let it hang. Let the jack down and jack up the opposite side and repeat. Once the upper coils are loose, remove the lower coil cup bolts and the coil springs. Now put your jack under the axle again for support and remove the 4 bolts from the radius arm cap and remove the large nut and cotter pin from the rear of the radius arm. You will loosen the other side, but do not remove the 4 bolts from that side yet. This will give you enough play that you should be able to remove the radius arm and bushings.

Once you have the arm out and the bushings off, you want to clean up any excess rust off of the bushing surfaces. There is a special grease you can use to lube the bushings for easy assembly. Lube the back of the C bushings where they fit onto the radius arm and cap and tap into place. Take note that these are directional bushings and are marked in relation to where they go. Lube the radius arm frame bushings and slide the inner one onto the arm.

To reinstall the arm, you may need a come along or someone to help pull the axle forward a bit while you put it into place. I usually put the frame end in first and loosely install the outer bushing, washer and the nut. Manuever the axle to fit into the C bushing and put the radius arm cap back on. You may need to tap on it a little because it is a snug fit. Make sure that the bolt hole for the lower coil cup is facing up. You may need to use longer bolts to pull the cap back to the arm, until you can get the original bolts in place. You want to tighten them evenly, but do not tighten them completely until you get the other side done. Repeat the same procedure for the other side.

Once you get the other side back together, you can go ahead and reassemble your coil springs, shocks, etc. Install the lower coil cups but don't tighten the bolts yet. You can rotate the spring into the cups which is much easier than trying to start the bolts with the coils in place. You want to leave them loose until you get the spring and the retaining strap in place on the upper coil tower. Once you get the springs in place and all of the bolts started, you can tighten the lower coil cups, and the upper spring retainers. Install the shocks on the radius arms. Once you get them tight, you can go ahead and tighten the rear radius arm nuts. You should have already got the bushings to start in the frame mounts. You can reinstall the front tires. I like to have the front end sitting on the ground before my final tightening of the radius arm nuts. Double check all of your bolts.

Replacing the track bar bushings is simple by comparison. Remove the cotter pin and the large nut and washer on the axle end. Remove the cotter pin, nut/ bolt from the frame. Pry the track bar out of the upper frame mount and then you should be able to work it back and forth to remove it from the axle end. Sometimes, the inner sleeve gets stuck on the lower axle end stud. If it doesn't come off, you may need an air hammer, or a torch to remove it.
You also want to take a close look at the bolt for the upper frame mount as well as the hole in the mount itself. It is very common for the bolt to be worn or the hole to be oblonged which will require some further work.
Factory track bar bushings need to be pressed out. If they have been replaced with poly, the halves should drive out easily. A little grease on the bushing surfaces and they should slide in, and then the inner sleeves go in.
Reinstall the track bar on the bottom stud 1st, with the washers and the nut and push it up towards the frame mount. You may need some assistance to turn the steering wheel back and forth a little bit so that you can get the bolt hole to line up. Tighten everything down and reinstall your cotter pins.

Jason
'69 Bronco 5.0, 435
'93 F350 CC 4x4 Diesel

 

Wow, Jason, what an excellent explanation of how to do it! This should be saved in the tech articles section for future reference . I don't know how that is done, but maybe one of the forum administrators can look into making it a tech article? You always have spot-on tech info about our old Broncos!

By the way, you have essentially the same Ford trucks I have! '69 Bronco, 302/3-speed/3.50's/31's and ltd slips front and rear, and a '92 F350 SRW CrewCab 4x4, 351/C6/4.56's/33's with a locker in the rear .

 

By the way, you have essentially the same Ford trucks I have! '69 Bronco, 302/3-speed/3.50's/31's and ltd slips front and rear, and a '92 F350 SRW CrewCab 4x4, 351/C6/4.56's/33's with a locker in the rear .[/QUOTE] In the words of the immortal Chris Farley from the movie Tommy Boy-- "Brothers dont shake hands,,,,,,, Brothers gotta HUG!!!

 

Come here brother
Bronco is a '69, EFI 5.0, NP435, 35's, Detroit in the rear, OX locked in the front. The truck has a 5 speed, 4.10's, on metric 35's, and has just about 230,000 miles on it.

Jason

 

Jason, your Bronco setup sounds great! Mine would really like an NP435 in it too . Not much on hugging, but I'd be happy to kick back and share a couple brews with ya!