got it done today. started at 11, was putting tools away by 5:30. a torch is defintly helpful. while pulling the bed may help, i didnt want to go to that extreme, thats 4-6 more (major) fasteners, i had no help, and as badly rusted as things are under my rig, it would just be more time spent than i felt was worth. first thing i did was get the but up in the air, just as high as my jackstands would go. i pulled both rear tires and put the jack under the differential. unbolted the lower shock mounts, pulled the exhaust pipe out of the muffler. (i just put a new exhaust on it a few weeks back and used anti-seize on the joints, wasnt a problem) tried taking off the bolts holding the shackle to the spring, right side nut came off, left side just turned and collaped the rotting shackle. took the torch to the left side nut at the spring/shackle. torched off all the rivit heads. on the left side of my truck the back 2 (up and down) were bolts, torched them also. torched off the shackle where it meets the spring, lowered the rear axle with the floor jack as much as possible (rear brake line limits you here) took a hammer and chisel to the edge of the old brackets to seperate them from the frame. was able to knock rivits/bolts out o.k. on left side, right side only 1 would knock out, fired up the torch again and burnt them out. for removal of the spring bushings from the spring, i heated it up good with a torch, put the impact gun to the remaining bolt head and just kept at the trigger, it worked itself out, pried out the rubber from the spring eye with a screwdriver. putting the new bushings in was super easy. clean the spring eye, get some all-thread with nuts/washers.(you want it to just fit through the bushing) pass the all-thread thru the bushing & spring eye, put on bolts/washers, a little anti-seize for thread lubrication and i also lightly coated the bushing. the spring eyes were still warm from the torch, im sure this helped a bit. ratchet on one end of your all-thread, wrench on the other. and just "draw" it together. i cleaned the frame and sprayed on some areosol truck bed liner (i did my brackets and shackles the night before also) let it dry while i was putting the torch and air compressor away. put on the brackets, attached the spring to the shackle. hooked up my shocks and exhaust, tires back on, jackstands out, tightend wheels and hooked up diff vent tube (i had forgot about it when lowering the axle, it simply pulled out of the sot in the bed rib where it had been stuck) put tools away and headed home. (i did this at my folks farm, most of my tools are there, theres a nice slab of concrete to work on, and most of all dads torch! thres no room for a grinder) i didnt take the camera with me and its rather pointless to show you the new parts on. i did take pics of the old shackles after i removed them, they were much worse than i thought. the heating and banging really loosened more rust. got to do dads '94 3/4 ton next, the r.s. on it has seperated completely. one thing i found odd, on the 3/4 ton fords its basically the same bracketry (just bigger) but its installed upside down! (compared to how its on a ranger) heres the pics of the old junk once removed, 2 are of the left side and the last is of the right. wouldnt have made it another year!
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