Quote from: SixGun on January 24, 2014, 11:01:21 PM
So big block pop tops apparently have a larger rear spring eye bushing and bolt. It's been a long search for some poly bushings but found some finally at http://www.polybushings.com/pages/bushingsbysize.html The spring eyes are 1.25" diameter and a 5/8" bolt. This is just the rear. I believe the 3/4 tons and CTDs used them too. The fronts are the regular 1" eye and 1/2" bolt. So in case anyone needs these larger spring eye bushings, they are poly T bushing #2141. The bushings were $3.54 a piece and a set of 8 was $28.32 and included the bushing lube. Shipping was only $6 and came USPS in just 3 days. I even ordered the NP203 poly bushings he carries for $26. I didn't want to post this until I made sure they fit.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, I pulled the leaf springs and burned out the bushings already but I still had the outer sleeve to take out. Put the leaf in a vise and took out my handy dandy air hammer. I used the pickle fork looking chisel and tried to cut the sleeve out. It was taking too long so I used a 7/8" impact socket and my BFH to get the party started. About a 1/3 of the way in it stopped. I then used the next smaller size socket to eventually drive it the rest of the way out. So I discovered that if I cut a notch about 1/4" all the way around the sleeve, I could use the air hammer to fold in the tabs. I sprayed some PB blaster and let it soak in for a minute. This gave the smaller socket a step to bite on. By the last one, I had it out in less than a minute.
I cleaned out the spring eye and with some light taps with mallet I was able to seat the bushing. This bushing will not use an inner or outer sleeves. Here's some pics.
Yup ALL the ram chargers that I have hanging around seem to use 5/8 bolts and 1.25" bushings on the stock rear springs- I would recommend some sort of locking nut on your set up Richard. If you are not using sleeves inside the poly bushings the bolt will over tighten/smash the bushing- by using a a locking nut you can set some preload on the bushing without fear of the nut working itself loose or completely smashing the bushing.
