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Radius arm help!!!!!


Tb8983

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Messages
124
City
Forest Grove, OR
Vehicle Year
1989
Transmission
Manual
So I'm taking my stock radius arms off cause I got a set of James duff ones and am curious what the easiest way to take apart the front end to get the old arms off. Do I have to pull hub and brake assembly off or is there a different way that i don't know about. Any feed back would be great
 
Not really...just remove coil, take out lower coil stud (top of rad. arm) and lower bolt...remove crossmember and that's it.
 
There is nothing inside the raxle beams you strictly "need" to access to remove the radious arms, bu ofteh it's easiest to pull the calipers, rotors stubs and axle shafts.

Why? because doing so makes the axle lighter (and easier to work with)
and it makes the crimped in place boss that the radius arm spring stud (top)
and bolt (bottom) accessable so you can heat them up with your "smoke wrench"
to kill the factory loctite and loosen the rust to make it easier to unscrew the studs
and bolts.

No matter how you do it it's a dirty nasty job.... better you than me!

AD
 
Well the whole front end is outta the b2 right now sitting on the floor of the garage. Im not on a huge deadline to get it done so if it takes me another day it's not a big deal. I was just wanting to know which way is easier. But I'll prob end up tearing everything off and going that route. Thanks
 
I generally try to get the big bolt and stud out while it's bolted to the truck.

Mostly because it takes more torque to bust them loose and screw them out than it takes to make the thing spin on the ground.

Leaving it bolted to 4000lb of truck helps hold it all still.

AD
 
Well I guess I will take brake rotor hubs and axels out and bolt it back to the b2 and go from there. Do these have a tab on the back side to prevent them from spinning or will I need to put a wretch on them
 
There's a nut welded to the inside of the axle beam...That should be it.
 
I had good luck in the past, but last time I took one apart to replace my torn axle beam, I couldn't get it to budge. I bought the replacement axle off the truck so I didn't have the 4,000#. My 1/2" drive impact had no effect at all. I happened to see one of those tool tents in the parking lot of a shopping center and swung in and dug through the aisles until I found the mother of all impact wrenches. It's a 1" drive and is something like 1,500ft#. I had to upgrade all the lines and fittings in my compressor to 1/2" so it would flow enough air to operate it. I have a 6.5hp upright tank (90 gallon maybe?) and it barely runs this impact. But, boy, this thing works. That friggin bolt that burned up a pair of MAPP/Oxy tanks and I parked my truck on to keep it still while I wrestled with a 5' cheater on it--that impact, with no heat--just trying it out--just made a gentle lump--lump--lump--lump and it was out. Not the hysterical screech of the little 300ft# 1/2" drive wrench. This is a damn TOOL, by thunder! You do need some air volume, though.

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First, return the Duff crap and get something that is going to hold up.

Second, return the Duff crap and get something that is backed by a company that doesn't suck.

Third, get rid of the duff crap.

Fourth, It's relatively straight forward. A jack. A GOOD impact and about an hour. I've take all my bolts out with an extension through the coil. I did have to use some heat the first time but I upgraded my impact and haven't had any trouble since. You will have to drill some holes on the frame to mount the new (non-duff crap) radius arms. Before you remove your stock arms, take some measurements to figure out where you want your front tires to sit.

Fifth, did I mention that I hate Duff crap? I'd walk before I put their crap on my truck again.(just sayin)
 
The upper stud is too long to get a deep socket over so I usually put a box end wrench on it and smack the side of the wrench with a 5lbs mini sledge to get em moving.
 
My bro ran duff crap for 3-4 years on his b2 that was on 33s also they work great all the way up until he t-boned a car at a very high rate of speed. I go the arms and traction bars for 200 bucks will hold me over so I can finish getting the stuff to sas it then the duff stuff will go bye bye.
 

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