John Zuber
Active Member
Well, it took about seven hours for my wife and I to do the job. Not real bad, but my feeling is that Ford owes me some money for a job that should not have been necessary. Anyway, some notes that might help others.
Advice by Hugh, ToddZ and others were very helpful...see my original post dated 8/19/2014. Make sure you have a deep well 18mm impact socket, and a 15mm socket. Bolts for bushing A is a 15mm bolt, and an 18mm nut. Bolts for bushing B, C and D are all 18mm...and those nuts are actually a flared washer arrangement. I had no issues with disassembly of the bolts, but I used a small propane torch for about 30 seconds for bolts B, C and D. Hitting it with the impact gun for about 5 to 10 seconds got each bolt to start turning. Make sure you have a wire wheel and a drill to clean off the old lock-thread from each bolt, and be prepared for some serious clean-up from touching and handling bushings B and C. Those crappy foam bushings are nasty and sticky, and they make quite a mess on the garage floor. After the first one we used newspaper. I completely pulled the bolts from bushing B and C, while keeping the bolts in A and D, but very loose. Frankly I think all the bolts could just come out as long as the other side is still tight...but that's my opinion. Bushings A is different...remove the nut from the top...then remove the bolt from the bottom. But the bolt still has to unthreaded. I had my wife hold the bolt end down below while I removed the nut, but the bolt remained tight. Then I used the impact gun, using the 15mm socket, for the bottom bolt.
I used two hydraulic lift jacks, several small scraps of 2X4, and placed the lifting points on frame bracing points...one under the rear door between bushing C and D, and one right next to bushing B. I didn't enjoy doing the lift, but didn't hear any major creaks either. Some minor ones, but I think that was the jack digging into the wood. Only go as high as necessary to remove old bushings.
I did the passenger side of the truck first, and that is the easy side. The driver side is somewhat more difficult because the emergency brake line slightly interferes with the work. I used some tin foil to create a heat shield for the brake cable. Once lifted, remove the bushings and use two large channel lock pliers to separate the metal bushing housing from the rubber/foam bushing material. Reuse the hardware. To access bushing bolts C, I had to remove the hold-down bolts for both front seats. The access point was just too close to the rear seat hold-down points...so this allowed me to tilt each seat when working on the bushing C bolt. I used thread lock on each bolt and on the nut for bushing A, and applied 40 ft lbs to A, and 60 to B, C, and D.
Bushing A looked in excellent shape, and I had no trouble in removing the bushing from the frame. Bushing D also looked excellent, but I couldn't get it to drop out the body frame unless I wanted to do some serious prying. Note that you have to do this when the body is lifted for the top section of the bushing...so I did not replace bushings D. I certainly hope I don't have to redo this job because of not replacing bushings D, but they looked just fine.
Test dive was like driving a new truck...no more creaks, thumps, etc...and rides more firm. This was almost as much fun as a hot day at Disney. Thanks to fellow members.
Advice by Hugh, ToddZ and others were very helpful...see my original post dated 8/19/2014. Make sure you have a deep well 18mm impact socket, and a 15mm socket. Bolts for bushing A is a 15mm bolt, and an 18mm nut. Bolts for bushing B, C and D are all 18mm...and those nuts are actually a flared washer arrangement. I had no issues with disassembly of the bolts, but I used a small propane torch for about 30 seconds for bolts B, C and D. Hitting it with the impact gun for about 5 to 10 seconds got each bolt to start turning. Make sure you have a wire wheel and a drill to clean off the old lock-thread from each bolt, and be prepared for some serious clean-up from touching and handling bushings B and C. Those crappy foam bushings are nasty and sticky, and they make quite a mess on the garage floor. After the first one we used newspaper. I completely pulled the bolts from bushing B and C, while keeping the bolts in A and D, but very loose. Frankly I think all the bolts could just come out as long as the other side is still tight...but that's my opinion. Bushings A is different...remove the nut from the top...then remove the bolt from the bottom. But the bolt still has to unthreaded. I had my wife hold the bolt end down below while I removed the nut, but the bolt remained tight. Then I used the impact gun, using the 15mm socket, for the bottom bolt.
I used two hydraulic lift jacks, several small scraps of 2X4, and placed the lifting points on frame bracing points...one under the rear door between bushing C and D, and one right next to bushing B. I didn't enjoy doing the lift, but didn't hear any major creaks either. Some minor ones, but I think that was the jack digging into the wood. Only go as high as necessary to remove old bushings.
I did the passenger side of the truck first, and that is the easy side. The driver side is somewhat more difficult because the emergency brake line slightly interferes with the work. I used some tin foil to create a heat shield for the brake cable. Once lifted, remove the bushings and use two large channel lock pliers to separate the metal bushing housing from the rubber/foam bushing material. Reuse the hardware. To access bushing bolts C, I had to remove the hold-down bolts for both front seats. The access point was just too close to the rear seat hold-down points...so this allowed me to tilt each seat when working on the bushing C bolt. I used thread lock on each bolt and on the nut for bushing A, and applied 40 ft lbs to A, and 60 to B, C, and D.
Bushing A looked in excellent shape, and I had no trouble in removing the bushing from the frame. Bushing D also looked excellent, but I couldn't get it to drop out the body frame unless I wanted to do some serious prying. Note that you have to do this when the body is lifted for the top section of the bushing...so I did not replace bushings D. I certainly hope I don't have to redo this job because of not replacing bushings D, but they looked just fine.
Test dive was like driving a new truck...no more creaks, thumps, etc...and rides more firm. This was almost as much fun as a hot day at Disney. Thanks to fellow members.
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