Call_Me_Tex

Wondering if any of y'all have installed energy suspension (ES) leaf spring bushings. I installed the rear eye and shackle bushings with no issue but the front ones are a sloppy fit into the original bushing sleeves. I'm hesitant to remove the sleaves as the directions say because I don't think the eye is going to close up enough to make them fit right. At least with the sleeves in I can fill the gap with RTV and get my truck back on the road. Once the sleeves are out I'm kinda hooped.

It should be noted that the ES bushings for the rear eye were too big to fit into the sleeve. They fit spot on with the sleeve removed. I'd have expected similar for the front but maybe the front eye has more spring to it?

Truck is a '95 4WD.

Steve83

There are 2 styles of factory bushing: sleeved & molded. You have to buy the correct replacement. Which replacement PN did you get? Post pics of what you've removed, and what's left.

Look at the choices on this page:
http://www.energysuspensionparts.com..._f150_4wd_1995

Do not use silicone - it's not strong enough, and won't stick anyway. The truck would be UNsafe, and the spring would wear into the shackle & frame.

Call_Me_Tex

I got the right kit and I've already called energy suspension to verify that. They had nothing helpful to say on this question other than reading me the directions I'd already seen. I had the molded in shackle bushings. The rear spring eye bushings fit as expected with the shells removed, as did the shackle bushings.

I'm not relying on a super thick coating of RTV to fill a massive gap. With the shells still there the bushings fit in with maybe 1/32 per side of clearance, sloppy was probably the wrong word. They are loose enough that if you turn the spring on its side they fall out but once the sleeve was put in they weren't bad. Certainly not a snug fit like the rear was. Given the shell is roughly 1/8" wall the spring eye would have to close up the ID by about 5/16" which seems like more than is feasible. I've been doing some more reading and apparently the bushings will rotate in the spring eyes which I didn't expect. I thought they were designed for the metal sleeve to spin in the bushing only. That said, the RTV will fail and they'll loosen up in a matter of miles but not to a dangerous level. They'll still be better off than the shagged out bushings that were removed until I get suitable replacements.

If anyone that has these bushings can check the gap in their spring eye for me it would be helpful. I've got 3/16"-1/4" gap in the eye currently. If that closes all the way up with the shell removed then I'll pull the shells and hope for the best. If it doesn't work out I'll have to order new OEM bushings for the fronts. If those don't fit too for some reason I'll have to buy some new springs.

This truck must have a strange suspension package or some old aftermarket stuff on it. The swaybars are odd ball sizes for what's still available for this year too so getting new bushings there has been a pain.

Steve83

The shell is nowhere near 1/8" thick (10ga). It's not even 1/16" (16ga). The bushing should NOT rotate in the spring eye when the through-bolt is tightened, but silicone won't stop it. It should only pivot on the bolt's sleeve, which should be lubed with silicone grease.

This & the links in the caption show my most-recent removal of the factory bushings:


(phone app link)

All the replacements went in easily but tightly.

You're saying "odd ball sizes", but you're not saying WHAT sizes the sway bars are. This shows what I used:


(phone app link)

Call_Me_Tex

So the shell was .080 thick for future reference. I made the mistake of removing one of the shells assuming such a common application would be well publicised if it had a fitment issue. That was a mistake. I should have left it alone with the sleeve and RTV (btw, the bushings were in there solid with the RTV it would have held fine). Once the sleeve was out I googled "F150 leaf spring eye 1.75" and came up with the following on fullsizebronco.com The bushing in the kit was undersized by .125"

http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/.../118772?page=1

"This should answer everybodys problems. 80-93 F150 4x4 and Bronco use bushing # EOTZ-5781-C that is 1.625 OD and 94-96 F150 4x4 and Bronco use F4TZ-5781-B that is 1.785 OD. The Ford Depots have plenty in stock of both numbers, so it should not take too long to get."

That totally jives with what I've got. Now I'm going to fight the other side shell out and have a machinist buddy just make me some custom Delrin bushings to sort it out. Looks like there aren't any aftermarket urethane options out there that will fit.

I didn't post my swaybar sizes because that's unrelated to this thread. I can sort that out myself just haven't made it a priority yet.