by The Other Rob » Sun Nov 28, 2010 6:06 pm
First.. Original crossmember..
Second.. OMFG..!!!! This is a PITA.. Starting to think the thing is welded in place.. Beat on it with a hammer for a while and it didn't move.. Took a torch to it to heat it up.. There's no more rubber left in it, but the outter bushing sleeve still isn't budging.. When the sleeve is removed roughly how tight does the bushing fit in place..??
Interestingly enough, with all of the rubber burned out of the outter sleeve, the middle size bushing in the pack fits pretty nicely.. Took a bit of grinding with a die grinder to get the lower side "clearanced" out some to let the bushing slide into that side. I trimmed the height of the bushings down about 1/4" each where they meet in the middle pretty well and still sit tight on their faces.. There may be 1/32 or 2 of space between them in the middle.. Just enough to feel really.
Gonna wait to hear some thoughts from those with a bit more knowledge than me, to chime in on the thoughts of using the smaller bushing before I button this all back up.
BTW.. Unless you're pretty dang mechanically inclined, or are just damned determined and have a more than a socket set at your disposal, this isn't something you'll prolly wanna tackle on your own.. Once you have the crossmember off the truck and the old bushing torn apart in your hands, you are at the point of no return. Either be prepared to finish the job or order a new crossmember. If you're thinking, I'll just get the parts and give them to a mechanic along with the directions, you prolly ain't gonna come out to far ahead over just buying a OEM crossmember and being done with it. Crossmember replacement shouldn't take more than 30 minutes or so..
--
Rob
WHEEL IT LIKE IT'S SPONSORED..!!!