Radius Arm Bushings
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Senior User
Joined: Nov 2003
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From: El Paso Texas
Radius Arm Bushings
The wife's daily driver is a 1996 F-150, 302 auto, 89K miles.
She stated that it has a "clunk" in the front end. While I was putting brake pads on it today, I noticed that the driver's side radius arm bushing is pretty wasted.
I've read the Haynes manual and it looks pretty straight forward. Anyone have any tips to make the job easier, or things to beware of?
As always, and advice is greatly appreciated.
She stated that it has a "clunk" in the front end. While I was putting brake pads on it today, I noticed that the driver's side radius arm bushing is pretty wasted.
I've read the Haynes manual and it looks pretty straight forward. Anyone have any tips to make the job easier, or things to beware of?
As always, and advice is greatly appreciated.
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From: Indiana
Fleet Owner
Joined: Jan 2004
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From: Brentwood,CA
it is a little hard to do. you need to remove the shocks,remove the top spring hold down,unbolt the i beam bolt on the end, drop the end of the ibeam downthen pull the entire assembly outwards. i takes baout 45mins a side. use poly bushings and not the parts store rubber crap.
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Joined: Jul 2002
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From: SW Michigan
If you grind,cut, or drill out the rivets on the rear bracket you can save a lot of time. Just replace them with grade 8 bolts and nuts. The stock bushings lasted 10+ years the new ones probably will last the life of the truck.
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Joined: Dec 2003
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From: shelocta, pa
i agree get the rivets out and replace with grade eight hardware. When you decideto lift itand use drop brackets it'll be that much easier then.
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From: El Paso Texas
The consensus seems to be to drill out the rivets and replace with bolts. We bought this truck new in 96, and it's always had a kind of creaking noise in the front end I couldn't find.
Any chance it was the rivets causing this? Seems like I can kill two birds with one stone if so.
Any chance it was the rivets causing this? Seems like I can kill two birds with one stone if so.
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From: Remsen, NY
I think I remember that these loosen up sometimes but there were TSB's that talked about some other rivet loosening up as a much more common thing, forward of there, perhaps for the spring perch or motor mount crossmember. Not sure. Take a look for TSB's for your truck on www.alldatadiy.com
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From: El Paso Texas
Finished!!
Well, it's done. I removed the radius arm to frame bracket and changed the bushing. It was attached with bolts, not rivets, and it was the driver's side.
Took about 2.5 hours. Only ran into a couple of snags. First, the rubber bushing had literally fused itself to the metal. Had to use a drill with a wire wheel to get the molten rubber off of both the bracket and the radius arm. Second, a couple of those frame bolts felt like they were welded on. They must have been torqued to better than 250 ft lbs. I used a 3/4" breaker bar with a cheater bar on the end to get them off. Retorqued per the manual to 110 ft lbs. It was also a bit challenging to get all 4 bolts on the bracket to line back up with their respective holes, but that's what floor jacks and pry bars are for.
Not an easy job, but certainly not worth paying someone a couple hundred bucks to do either. And the clunk is gone.
Thanks to all who responded for the help.
Took about 2.5 hours. Only ran into a couple of snags. First, the rubber bushing had literally fused itself to the metal. Had to use a drill with a wire wheel to get the molten rubber off of both the bracket and the radius arm. Second, a couple of those frame bolts felt like they were welded on. They must have been torqued to better than 250 ft lbs. I used a 3/4" breaker bar with a cheater bar on the end to get them off. Retorqued per the manual to 110 ft lbs. It was also a bit challenging to get all 4 bolts on the bracket to line back up with their respective holes, but that's what floor jacks and pry bars are for.
Not an easy job, but certainly not worth paying someone a couple hundred bucks to do either. And the clunk is gone.
Thanks to all who responded for the help.