The passenger side radius arm bushing on my BII have been wearing out fairly rapidly. The latest OEM rubber one was visibly chewed up after only 17,000 miles.

I bought a set of James Duff polyurethane replacements and shopped around for installation cost. The local Ford dealer quoted me a price of $392 for both sides including alignment. A tire/alignment specialty shop quoted me $600 for the same job. I decided to take the plunge and tackle the job myself.

It was nowhere near as bad as I had feared. My biggest fear was that as the radius arm came out of the bracket, it looked as though it was going to pop towards the outside and I wouldn't be able to push it back in. However, I found a solution to that problem. Here's what I did.

1. Placed a floor jack under the front axle so I could play around with the height of the axle.
2. Laid down a platform of side-by-side 4x4 inch pieces of wood topped off with a sturdy piece of plywood to elevate the working height of my jack stand and jacked up the front passenger side, placing the jack stand under the frame.
3. Removed the wheel, lower shock bolt and a torsion/stabilizer bar bolt.
4. Removed the radius arm nut, washer, heat shield and rear bushing.
5. Loosened the axle pivot bushing bolt.
6. Removed the brake caliper and suspended it from a piece of wire.
7. Lowered the axle and removed the bolt and cup securing the bottom of the coil spring.
8. Wrapped a 3' length of chain around the axle, to a come-along that I attached to another vehicle I drove up in front of the Bronco.
9. Using the come-along, I pulled the axle forward.
10. It was at this point that I got a little concerned that the radius arm would pop out to the outboard side of the truck as soon as the end cleared the mounting bracket and I wouldn't be able to force it back into place. I was unable to move it. However, using an impact wrench, I loosened the radius arm pivot bolts so that the radius arm could freely move from side to side.
11. Resuming pulling the axle forward, just before the radius arm cleared the bracket, the coil spring fell out.
12. At this point it was easy to replace the front part of the bushing and reassemble everything. I used the come-along to help pull the radius arm back into place.

I could probably have got way without the come-along, but not without loosening the radius arm pivot bolts. An impact wrench made this job really easy.

I hope this proves helpful to someone.

 

What did ya use to remove the NUT and CUP on the lower SPRING? Gotta replace mine too but cant figure how ta get to the NUT onth Lower Spring.

 

1 1/8" combo wrench will do the trick on removing the nut, but it's a slow, painful process. I forget what the metric size is for those nuts. With the shock disconnected, the radius arm will 'drop' once you get that nut off.

 

Try a very long 1/2" drive extension with an extra deep 1 1/8" socket. Pry the inner fender well back far enough to get the socket into the upper spring mounts. You will want the ratchet/breaker bar above the fender height. An air impact makes this job a lot simpler.
for the radius arm bushings, there should be a metal cup to cover the bushing, this keeps the exhaust heat off the bushing, (so they say anyway). If yours doesn't have one, use a can with a hole in the bottom and cut it off to cover the bushing.
You might want to check your cat to see if it is plugged, most times burnt up bushing in this area lead back to some sort of excessive heat build up.
I have in the past, put a heat shield between the exhaust and the radius arm bushing due to stop and go traffic and a lot of heat. What ever you do to protect the bushing from heat, will be time well spent.

Ray

 

Thanks again guys; i really appreciate the help. Don't know what i'd do without FTE. And a special thanks to the KERNEL. Ya really know ur stuff!

 

I only know so much from first-hand experience. The rest of it has been 'seeing' (reading) others' experiences and doing some research. Always glad to help out a fellow B2 owner