UPDATE:
I got the drivers side done. Which was the big deal right now as the one beneath the Driver floorboard as 90% eroded and causing a bad knock. Here is a basic write up. I started taking pictures at the beginning, back when I was young and naive... lmao. This by far was the most frustrating repair Ive ever done. I recommend that if you can afford it to pay a shop.
First, the front and back bushings are 100% intact on both sides. I think the center body bushings were made of a different material. When I set out to do this I considered replacing them all... in the end I only replaced the driver side center 2, which were bad. I will do the passenger side on another weekend, once Ive recovered and feel brave again.
I removed the step bars, the drivers seat, pulled back the carpet and bungeed up out of the way. Popped out the rubber caps to get access to the interior bolts. As expected from other write ups, the bolts just spun freely, not threading out. The bushing was so completely eroded I was able to get vise grips on the bottom metal part of the bushing to lock it in place. Then I used a heat gun to heat up the bolt and it came out with a lot of elbow grease. These bolts are in tight! I busted one small ratchet and had to go to buy a larger one and a breaker bar to get them to turn.
The rear bolt came out pretty easily. Because the bushing was intact it didn't spin like the others!
The front bolt never came out. I tried heat, and pb blaster, a ratchet gun, and multiple techniques with a regular ratchet and a breaker bar and I could not pop the bolt. So it stayed in, which made it impossible to jack the body all the way off the frame.
But I was able to use a 3.5 ton jack to jack up the body enough to get access to the center bushings, but due to the height of the metal housing, I could not get the body up high enough to remove them (again due to the front end still being bolted together). So after trying many techniques, I used a sawzall to cut through the metal skeleton of the bushing and it dropped right out.
So now I have both bushings fully out. I slide in the "universal" body mount set from energy suspension and realize that the top one is shorter than the oem, leaving a gap. I solved this by going to the hardware store and buying some very thick washers.
Once I made up the space difference with the thick washers, I slid in the new bolt and other matching hardware I had to buy myself. I lowered the body frame and tightened all the bolts. So far everything holds real well. No noises or groans and it rides much better than before.
So after all this, I have confirmed the soft universal poly body mount bushings from energy suspension WILL work on this truck. However it will require new hardware (bolts, washers, nuts, and lock washers). Also, pick up several thick washers to match the bolts if you need to make up any spacing problems.
My biggest tips to anyone trying this yourself.
1. If you can cut or pull away the deteriorating bottom bushing material, do so, and lock a pair of vise grips to the bottom metal housing of the bushing. Then apply heat to the center bolt (I used a heat gun). These two things allow me to finally get that bolt out.
2. Next jack up the body enough to get some clearance for the bad bushings, then lock on the vice grips on the metal again and cut through the bushing center with a sawzall (unless you have to reuse these for some reason, I just used all new bolts and nuts). It will save you tons of time.
Here are the few pics I did take.
These re the universal mounts. There are two full sets in each box, uppers and lowers, including few washers and the center metal tube.
[Broken External Image]:
Here is the bushing put together. Reminder, the top bushing is about 1/2" shorter than ford oem.
[Broken External Image]:
Here is the eroded bushing, I had to clear it all off to get the vice grips on the metal housing... which stops it from spinning.
[Broken External Image]:
So this is the factory bolt and the bottom housing for the bushing, you can see how the bolt threads in and why it spins freely when you try to remove the bolt. Like I said before, once I yanked all that eroded bushing off I could lock on some vise grips to hold the bottom and then the bolt can turn out.
[Broken External Image]:
This is where I stopped taking pics because of all the problems I had on the front bolt end having to cut the other busing out. I hope I described all my others steps well enough to help someone out in the future.
