Questions about extended radium arm bushing/spacer order of installation (PICS)

[Mcduuuugal808]

Just got these in, I noticed when using the ford plastic spacer as instructed, the rear bushing doesn't get close enough to insert into the housing, the 2nd picture shows the bushings in place without the plastic spacer (of course when mounting on truck I will be using the 2 metal washers).... seems alot more proper?? any help appreciated

 

[Wyant]

Use the spacer. Once you tighten down the nut the rear bushing seats appropriatly.

You can run without the spacer, its purpose is just for positioning. If you remove the spacer then your front axle might not be positioned in the center of the wheel well, it will be short of center. In my experience while putting on the 6 inch SJ kit, my axle was still back from center even with including the spacer. Therefore i added one of the black factory bushings behind the large front bushing. (if you start from the front of the truck, the smaller original black bushing would be the first in the series). You may or may not want to do this, its just sort of a pain in the butt to adjust the front bushings after everything is put together.

Also, while tightening the nut on the radius arm, make sure to put a strong hose clamp around the white plastic spacers. Both of mine cracked while tightening and i had to order new ones from moog, maybe i just tightened them too hard but idk. If you run with a cracked spacer then you will get an annoying clunking when braking hard because the radius arm is slipping back and forth.

 

[Wyant]

make sure the spacer is facing the right direction...

 

[4x4junkie]

I've also found the axle to end up a bit rear of center in the wheel wells with the SJ lifts.

What i would do is stack a few large washers at the front of the bushing (like seen here), and then run it without the spacer (tighten the RA nut just enough to bring the bushing halves together without crushing it). This should push the axle forward a bit which improves more than just the aesthetics of your truck (better firewall clearance w/bigger tires, improved ackerman performance).

 

[Mcduuuugal808]

Update, ok so I just went with it and the plastic spacers do stretch to acoomodate the size difference. Thanks for the help guys!