radius arms

[1993rangerxl]

Ok,I have to replace the rubber grommets/bushing in the radius arms on my 93. It's a 2wd,4banger. According to Hayes I have to disassemble the suspension and remove the springs. My question is, do I have to go that far in disassembly? While it's apart, what else should I be looking for concerning age and wear? Have over 300K on truck and has never been to alignment shop (last set of tires went over 100K!) Thanks for any help with this.

 

[exbass94]

There are two ways of doing this: The service manual way, which you described, OR, you can remove the brackets where the bushings are. I think this way is a lot easier and is the way I do it. The brackets are riveted to the frame. You remove the rivets and later replace them with Grade 8 bolts. There are several ways to remove rivets. You can grind them down, drill through them, air chisel them off, torch them off, or any combination of those. Personally I use an angle grinder to grind the head off the rivet, then drill about halfway through the rivet, stick a drift in the hole, and hammer the rest of the rivet out.

If the bushings are really bad, the radius arm might've been rubbing on the bracket, which can deform the hole, like this:

That's supposed to be a perfectly round hole. If yours is that bad, you should replace the bracket, in which case you'd have to remove the rivets anyway. New brackets are available at your local parts store.

I would check the ball joints, tie rods, and axle pivot bushings while you're doing this work.