Removing Rad core support bushings

[e21pilot]

I read about how tough it is to get these out because they rust solid.

When I got to mine, that was exactly the case on my Gen 1 Ranger. The popular solution seems to be to burn the old rubber out or drill them out.

I found another way that went pretty quickly. I just removed the nut at the top, lifted the the front core support up on one side with a floor jack and put a large spacer between the core support and the frame, then set the core support down on the spacer.

I moved the jack under the head of the bushing bolt on the bottom and used the jack to push up on it compressing the rubber of the lower bushing enough that it raised the upper bushing up, off the frame by about 1/4" to reveal the solid metal core of the inner bushing.

Then working under the fender, I used a 6" grinder with a cutting wheel to quickly cut through the inner metal of the bushing. When I dropped the jack down, the bottom bushing fell off, and the upper bushing was loose enough to slide out sideways.

I then put in the new upper bushing, raised the core support again, removed the spacer and set the core support back down on the new upper bushing. Inserted the new bottom bushing and a new Grade 8 bolt up from the bottom through both bushings and finally used a new nut and the original top washer plate to tighten the bushing down.

The cutting took about 30 seconds and the whole job was about 10 minutes per side. Not to bad.

Next, I have to see if what trick I can apply to the other 4 bushings -- no doubt they are rusted solid also.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Got lucky there, I've never been able to get the nut off the rad support bolts, even when the bolts don't look all that bad (like my F-150). I have had the top of the mount rot out though, both of the rad support mounts on my F-150 were like that, I cut the top off, welded in a new piece of metal and used a hole saw bit to make the hole for the new bushing. Looks factory.