Body bushing replacement

[SUX2BU99]

I chose to replace them because my cab was sagging in the drivers side by 1/4" and it was visible. My wife said it looked bad so I dropped $50 on an Energy Suspension black urethane bushing kit. Note that this kit is for the 73-80 2wd trucks, since my truck for some reason as a 73-80 frame. The 81-up bushings look different and cost about $10 more.


Jacking up the truck under the floor pan, between the gas tank and the body support using wood pieces to spread the load and prevent damaging the floro pan. You can faintly see to the right of the jack where I have removed the stock bushing.


Removed stock bushing. You can see how rusty and corroded they are. It was definitely due for replacement.


This is removal of one of the rear body mount bushings. See how much dirt, rust and dust there was lurking up there?? As soon as I removed the bolt, most of this fell down.


A front stock bushing after removal. Nasty!


A new front bushing in. Get the black urethane bushings, as the red ones can squeak. These will last WAY longer than the crappy OEM rubber ones.


Now this is interesting. This is from the passenger side rad support bushing bolt. It goes through the bushing and attaches with a nut on the bottom. Note the large amount of material missing from the bolt between the threads and the bolt head. This was right where it passed through the factory rubber bushing. It's obvious where moisture sits right in there and eats at the metal. Being near the battery tray doesn't help, since filling a battery can sometimes lead to acid leakage if overfilling it.

[Captkaos]

That's what I was looking for.  BTW, the bushings you removed were 73-80.

[SUX2BU99]

Yep, you got it. That's why I was confuzzed when I originally bought the 81+ bushings and was like "Um, these don't look the same as what I took out."  I either do have an earlier frame, or somebody put earlier body supports when they did the resto.

[ccz145a]

I either do have an earlier frame, or somebody put earlier body supports when they did the resto.

Some day someone somewhere will be saying the same thing about my truck with an '84 cab and bed on a '75 frame and new square nose sheetmetal. It would take a bit of brain juice to cipher the steps taken to create this beast.

BTW, I used poly-graphite bushings from PST on mine. They looked like the same thing as your's in the pics, though.

[smitty77]

While I'm thinking about this - Does anyone know what size the hole is in the body mount that is riveted to the frame?  All of my bolts looked like the one in the last photo.  They we so loose that:
1) I thought they we just spinning in the cab when I went to remove them (ie, the threads were stripped in the cab).  But no, they we loose enough to turn by hand.
2) All of the excess play generated by the trashed bushings really deformed the hole in 4 out of the 6 body mounts, and will need repair before a body goes back on the frame.

I plan on having my neighbor (a welder by trade) weld a heavy washer to the body mount bracket to make the hole round again, but I need to know the size.  I was able to get my hands on washers with a 1 1/8" dia. hole (2" OD) that look like they will work well, but I don't know if this will be too small.  One of my good holes looks to be about 1 1/4" dia.  How much play is there between the brass bolt sleeve and the body mount?

Thanks,
Smitty

[ccz145a]

Pre '81, the orig hole is not round either and kind of like to D's back to back. The odd shape is for alignment purposes. Once the bolts are torqued, there will be no movement -- the bushings will sandwich the mount.

Can't help on the numbers you want, but thought I'd throw some info 

[Captkaos]

In addition, the "space" there is for alignment purposes.

[comp]

good pics 

[smitty77]

In addition, the "space" there is for alignment purposes.

Then can someone post a pic of what they "should" look like?  Mine currently resemble a round shape (sort of).

Thanks,
Smitty

[chevymotocross]

Good work! Consider yourself lucky. 3 out of 4 cab bushings I had to replace on my 87, required me to cut a hole in my truck floor! They were so badly corroded, the bolts just snapped while trying to remove them. Had no other choice but to cut holes to access the other halves of the broken bolts.

[80stepsideguy]

When i 1st did the body bushings on my 80 before i had to replace the frame, the front body mount perches were so bad the body mounts rotted thru the perches, i had to weld up plates and holesaw 2 plates for the front cab perches.The front bolts on the cab i took a impact gun tothem and they snapped instantly.The rears came off easy and i had to weld  a plate on top of the radiator perch as well (pass side). Overall the northeast wasnt kind to this truck so like i mentioned i had to completly replace the frame since it was that badly decayed and corroded.But i still got the energy suspension bushings like you got here and there now on the new frame and cab.

thanks
pat

[SUX2BU99]

Wow, I'm sure glad I didn't have those kinds of problems like you two had. On the other hand, not having the column shifter lined up properly right now due to this replacement is driving me crazy!

[JJSZABO]

Good job, nice write-up.