Total Bushing Replacement

[daniel3507]

Lately I have been thinking about replacing all my bushings and body mounts. I know some of them are starting to wear, including ball joints. What are some opinions on the Prothane Total Bushing kit? I don't think it comes with everything so I'll have to piece the rest together. How difficult of a job is it?

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[upnsmoke]

I can't tell you much about the work on a 93. I can tell you that I typically buy Energy or Powerflex over Prothane when I can. I have had a good bit of experience with urethane suspension bushings from various manufacturers for various applications. Energy suspension bushings seem to vary in hardness according to application more so than those of any other manufacturer, leading me to assume that Energy does more homework. Examples would be motor mount inserts are very stiff, swing arm pivot bushings are of moderate stiffness, and certain bushings that need to be soft, are. Rear trailing arm bushings in a Civic need to flex to prevent bind, and Energy bushings for this application are softer than their average swing arm pivot or shock bushing appears to be. Prothane bushings tend to be stiffer most of the time than Energy bushings of similar application. Prothane bushings also appear to vary less depending on the application they are made for, and appear to be of correct hardness less of the time. Motor mount inserts I have used from Prothane typically appear to be hard as plastic, and many of their bushings for other applications are very hard as well. That said, I have pushed all of my vehicles hard, and known others that have done so with urethane bushings bushings installed that were made by Energy, Prothane, Powerflex, Whiteline, and so on, and have no real durability issues to speak of outside of some very extreme situations (race slicks and downforce, major accidents, etc.) On a separate note, I replaced all bushings, bearings, and ball joints on my 88, a different truck from your 93, but still a TTB like yours. I put all Energy bushings in to start, but decided after some driving that the ride was not to my liking and took it all back apart. I wound up with Energy radius arm bushings and Moog rubber in the beam pivots. I also used all Moog parts for the steering and ball joints as I have always had good associations with the Moog brand. All that I have typed here is my own opinion, inferences, and assumptions, for whatever it's worth. Here is a link to a similar thread from a while back-http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118799

 

[upnsmoke]

I'm surprised no one else chimed in on this. You get any parts yet? I would definitely set a weekend aside for the front suspension, and maybe more, depending on how thorough you plan to be with it. You looking to do leaf spring bushings while you're at it? The last thing I did body mount bushings on was a Nissan truck, and they were pretty painless. I'm sure someone around here has done them on a Ranger. All in all, I had a lot of tools out for doing suspension and brakes on mine. It was pretty labor intensive, some parts of it fought me pretty hard, even though somehow my truck doesn't seem to be rusted too badly, especially for being 23 years old. Get some rust penetrant, PB blaster or the like, and spray it on any fastener you can get to that you may have to remove, a day or better in advance. It makes things go a little smoother most of the time, helps you break off less bolts.

 

[robmedina]

I dont want to hijack the thread, but....

I'm surprised no one else chimed in on this. You get any parts yet? I would definitely set a weekend aside for the front suspension, and maybe more, depending on how thorough you plan to be with it. You looking to do leaf spring bushings while you're at it? The last thing I did body mount bushings on was a Nissan truck, and they were pretty painless. I'm sure someone around here has done them on a Ranger. All in all, I had a lot of tools out for doing suspension and brakes on mine. It was pretty labor intensive, some parts of it fought me pretty hard, even though somehow my truck doesn't seem to be rusted too badly, especially for being 23 years old. Get some rust penetrant, PB blaster or the like, and spray it on any fastener you can get to that you may have to remove, a day or better in advance. It makes things go a little smoother most of the time, helps you break off less bolts.

I bought body mount bushings to replace my stock ones but due to the weather I have yet to do them. My question is- Will replacing all the bushings (in addition to the body mount ones) stop all those nuisance squeaks I hear when my truck moves even the slightest bit?

 

[upnsmoke]

My truck doesn't squeak. Don't disregard interior parts though, as they can squeak and rattle as bad as anything else. Go drive a Toyota and you will know exactly what I mean. My truck doesn't have enough interior pieces left to make any noise. You can hear a ping clear as a bell.

 

[robmedina]

I do have some interior squeaks around the shifter, but the ones I am talking about are definitely in the suspension. When I pull out of my driveway, (I always back in) as soon as my tires clear the curb , as the front end comes down I hear a few squeaks, and the same as the rear comes down too. When driving, not so much unless I am going over some big bumps. But for driving I hear a different squeak which drives me crazy. It sounds like it is coming from the passenger side near the back side of the front tire area. THIS is what I am hoping the new body mount bushings will fix. We'll see.

 

[cstill88@hotmail.com]

That could be in your shock mount too, shock bushings tend to be cheaper and less durable than body or running gear bushings. Have someone bounce on the front while you listen underneath. Should be easy to pinpoint.

 

[daniel3507]

Havent got parts yet. I got it priced out with all energy suspension bushings and Moog ball joints. Its right at $300. That's for every bushing on my truck though body mounts included.

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[kryptonitecb]

Take a look at napa body and chassis joints. I used to get moog till a buddy showed me a cross section of napa's parts. Its like comparing craftsman to snap-on, alot better quality.

Sent from the road while ignoring traffic

 

[upnsmoke]

Take a look at napa body and chassis joints. I used to get moog till a buddy showed me a cross section of napa's parts. Its like comparing craftsman to snap-on, alot better quality.

Sent from the road while ignoring traffic

Interesting. Are you talking bushings, ball joints, or both? As far as bushings, it seems that durability would be relative to material quality more than design in most cases. Ball joints however, could vary greatly in their durability according to both material quality and design. The worst ones are Steeda X2 ball joints for Mustangs. I know by experience, they die fast, though I never dissected one to find out what actually went wrong with them. I don't have any recent experience with Napa. I'll have to check them out.

 

[upnsmoke]

Rob, squeaks can be hard to find. In the front, it could be a tie rod end, a ball joint, a bushing, or a shock. As far as the rear, leaf spring bushings and shocks can make noise, as can leaf springs themselves. There is not really much you can do that I know of to keep leaf springs quiet, though they should not be excessively loud. I don't know how much noise you can get from body mounts. Could be significant I guess. Either way, $300 doesn't sound bad. Does that include any steering parts? If you do not replace tie rod ends, I would a least check them and replace the boots if necessary. Energy has some universal boots that are available in red. I used them for my ball joints and end links. They look cool if nothing else.

 

[daniel3507]

Sorry for the late reply. $300 doesn't include any steering components. I'm not sure what condition my tie rods are in but I'm going to check them at the vary least. Depending on funds though they may have to wait. Do most of the bushings need to be pressed out?

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[upnsmoke]

Radius arm bushings are removed and installed easily by hand. Beam pivot bushings must be burned, pressed, or cut out, depending on tools available and how patient you are. I usually burn out old rubber bushings and use a drill motor with a wire brush to finish cleaning the rubber out. The wire brush has to be almost exactly the right size to go through and get all the old rubber. I use calipers to measure the id of the steel and use a bench grinder to reduce the size of the wire brush to about .02 to .03 inch bigger than the hole it must pass through. If you don't have a bench grinder the sidewalk works, just takes a little longer. I don't have any pictures from my truck, but here are a couple from a Civic I worked on (same concept I guess).

Original and reduced size wire brush:

Bushing partly done:

Ready for new bushings:

And of course:

 

[daniel3507]

Well that looks like a pain in the ass. I am hoping to order parts in the next few weeks. So far the list is:
Radius arm bushings
Body mounts
Tie rod end dust boots
Front and rear sway bar
Axle pivot (there is an option for HD and non HD?)
Ball joints
Leaf spring and shackles
Am I missing anything else? What about all the other bushings on the tie rod? Are those only replaced with the tie rod itself? It seems like everytime I hit a bump there is a rattle somewhere in the front end. At first I thought the upper shock mount was loose and it was rattling around but that's not the cause.

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[FrankBoss]

Daniel

I'm about to do the same thing to my 84..I collected all the parts ex the camber bushings.

So keep us informed on your progress.

FrankBoss