Joe, your the man! sound like a fun job. Now get some sleep.
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Joe, your the man! sound like a fun job. Now get some sleep.
Now that Ive rebushed the steer axle and found how easily and quickly I was able to complete the job I crawled under the back of the bus to get a look at all the suspension arms and bushings. There are 9 more arms for a total of 18 bushings for the rear 2 axles. There is more room to get at them than in the front. Ill be ordering the rest of the bushings on monday. Just buy what I can see now they look a little more wore out than the fronts. I had the front axle done in 6 hours and I didnt know what I was getting into. I estimate Ill have another 10 hours doing the 2 rear axles, but very likley, probably less. Was anybody else concidering having these done in the near future?
Prevost estimates 40 hrs?
Does this include repainting each arm, one at a time, and then including drying time for the paint in the labor costs or what?
Relentless, have you done yours yet?
Joe,
Come to POGII and put on a seminar. Forget working. You need a break from driving that truck.
A guy on the other site needs your advice. Help him out.
All very good suggestions Jon:) Instead of a seminar lets just do someones bus. For instance, take a look behind your tag axle tire, if you remove it Ill bet ya the upper and lower arms can be removed in almost as little time as it takes to remove the tire! If anyone needs help with this project Im off all winter and would be happy to assist. We have a gas powered air compressor that will power my 1 inch impact I can put in my P/U. If you want to do a seminar on this at santa-fe mabye relentless could help if he is going, dont know? I have not turned a wheel all week with the dump with all the RAIN. If there was any chance we could go to POG2 it went away this week. We will however be at the next rally and would be happy to do that work then, wherever that might be. A guy on the other site hu? Hmmmmmmmm, wonder who that is?
Just another thought. A significant portion of the time was spent cleaning up the oriface on the rod where the bushing rides. They get corroded badly and I believe this probably contributes to the accelerated break down of the bushing. Rubber from the bushing gets pounded onto the rod so hard you almost have to grind it off. If I had more time to do this job I would have them powder coated. Not the entire rod, just where the bushing rides. You can only pull one arm per axle at a time but if you did all 3 axles at the same time and you could get a 1 day turn around on the powder coat it could be done in 5 days. Most of you probably arent going to keep your stuff long enough to go to this extreem. Wait a minute, powder coat the whole darn thing, this would qualify for BLING, wouldnt it? Jon, you could add this to your chrome slack adjusters and stainless brake chambers!
Jon has already had them painted with 3 coats of color and 2 clear coat. Catch up, will ya?
Better late than never. We will do a full picture show when I get to the rears.
Attachment 495
Attachment 494
The old and the new. Just by what I can see by looking the tag axle bushings are probably a little more worn out than the one pictured.
Looking through the parts bin today I see 2 axles worth of radius rod bushings. After installing new ones on the steer axle I closed the box on the remainder of them. I'm thinking the drive axle I will do in Chicago. I was also concidering doing the tag axle at a rally but hesitate because I wonder just how many members would benefit from observing a project such as this:confused:
I am finally getting around to installing the radius rod bushings on the tag and the drives. Since it looks like it will be a little longer before we make a rally and I am in there now and I'm doing them. When I did the steer axle I did not have a digital camera and so I am reviving this thread:o
Here is some initial photos.
This is the right tag tire off and the rear bushings on both the top and bottom rods.
Attachment 4588
Here is a bushing that is just ever so slightly starting to go.
Attachment 4589
This is the lower arm front bushing for the drive axle. This one is ripe. If you have any like this you need to replace them.
Attachment 4590
Here is the rear bushing on the lower rod on the tag. It is dryrotted and all the shoulder is crumbling and deteriorated
Attachment 4591
I did not start removal I ran out of daylight but I don't care, I got all summer:o
Stay tuned for more.
I began to pull the radius rods off the tag. I could have used air tool but decided by the time I drug everything across the street I could have one off. I started late and would only have time to pull 1 anyway so I decided to see if it could be done with just some hand tools.
First you have a lock washer you need to bend back.
Attachment 4597
Somewhere in the thread I posted the nut size and a socket on a 1/2 in impact zips these rite off but this way also only took a minute.
Attachment 4598
The smaller nuts are 15/16 and all easily accessible
Attachment 4599
Attachment 4600
The front of this upper rod and it is removed similarly
Attachment 4601
Here is the end of the rod.
Attachment 4604
I threaded the nut back on and drove it out
Attachment 4605
A simple Stanley knife cut the old one loose
Attachment 4606
This is actually where most of the time for this job will be. Cleaning the posts and end of the rods where the rubber has been POUNDED into and onto them
Attachment 4607