"Waller'd" I-Beam

[needlenose]

I thought the bushing came out too easy... sure enough. Yep, some clown apparently ran the bushing so long it started eating into the beam. I didn't even know that was possible since the entire bushing is encased and enclosed.

You can see the bushing actually deformed to match the hole.

Any magic remedies? Apparently, these i-beams are also unobtanium. No one carries them.

I'm thinking I will just weld in the deformation and have a machine shop punch it out. I know you're "...not supposed to...", but I don't really see an option.

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[franklin2]

Just put a new bushing in it. The bushing has a metal sleeve correct? It's just a very small percentage of the hole in the arm that is elongated. The rest of the hole will support it.

 

[Austin86250]

Perfect excuse for a Dana 60

 

[Old Goat]

What range of years used that suspension part?
Start searching on www.row52.com and see what you come up with. It does a search area depending how far you want the search, on PNP yards.

Goat

 

[captain720]

If you have a machine shop willing to do that I would say go for it, check with them before you weld it as I know I would like to be the welder if I was doing the machining.

 

[mexicanjoe]

If you can find a machine shop to "sleeve" the I beam you might be better off and may even be cheaper. As a young man attending college< I worked on mega huge cattle ranches and found myself driving old Ford heaps in the pastures. Most were not street safe, but continued to run and had really BAD suspensions . They never gave out, they just kept on going. !!!!

 

[needlenose]

Perfect excuse for a Dana 60

, already found the kit, the axle, and told the wife a '05+ SD SAS is coming just last night. It's really not that expensive for what you get. Imagine the brakes....

I can't believe how many key parts you can't get for the 2wd anymore. No beams, and no spindles(that I have found so far). Yet I can completely rebuild a solid axle.

 

[needlenose]

Just put a new bushing in it. The bushing has a metal sleeve correct? It's just a very small percentage of the hole in the arm that is elongated. The rest of the hole will support it.

I thought about just running it. But I'm worried about the nearly .25" tolerance with the alignment. you can see how much of the old bush collapsed into the space. The last alignment guy I took it to said he wouldn't warranty anything since the bushings were to old and nothing would hold.

 

[needlenose]

If you can find a machine shop to "sleeve" the I beam you might be better off and may even be cheaper. As a young man attending college< I worked on mega huge cattle ranches and found myself driving old Ford heaps in the pastures. Most were not street safe, but continued to run and had really BAD suspensions . They never gave out, they just kept on going. !!!!

Yeah, I bought one of those trucks....

 

[Old Goat]

I think a lot of us did, when you think how old these things are. 2 or 3 prior owners down the road, and all the abuse and lack of maintenance. The whole front suspension of the Twin Beam axle`s etc... was wore out on my 86....as well as Rotors,Calipers and Wheel bearings.


Goat

 

[captain720]

I pulled the axle bearings out of the front axle on my 87 in pieces, too small and too many to count it was just lumpy grease.