Radius Arm Bushings FYI

I just had to replace the passenger side radius arm bushings on my 92
yet AGAIN. The last ones I put on were some fairly costly ones from
NAPA that were mostly hard plastic. They only lasted about 10K miles
of city driving. I don't recall the source of the ones before that
but they too were mostly hard plastic. This time I went back to Ford
and got their latest version which is NOT hard plastic. They appeared
to be made of a very stiff, but still slightly deformable material.
When installed, the size of the various pieces is such that the main
body of this stuff will get squished and expand to form a nice tight
fit in the hole in the crossmember. The only odd thing was that the
only way to make this work was to re-use one of the hard parts from
the old bushings so I wouldn't run out of threads before the whole
thing was tightened down firmly. Finally the horrible clunking noise
if gone from that side. Now I can hear the very slight clunking from
the "good" drivers side, which still has the Napa parts in it. These
RABushings are certainly a weak link. All the other front end parts
are still the originals at 118K miles and I could not find any wear in
them as I looked for any other parts making the clunking noise... It's
always the RABs. The only ones were allowing around half an inch of
up and down movement. In the process of looking for the "noises" I
also found the front wheel bearings had gotten fairly loose. I can
vaguely recall the first time I pulled them apart and how I spent
hours looking over the instructions and very carefully pulling things
off of what seemed like a very complicated hub assembly. Then the
second time it didn't seem quite so complicated. This time, with
benefit of the experience (that's why Warman makes the big bucks !!) I
just yanked it all out, checked the bearings, packed some new grease
in, lubed the brake slides, and slapped it all back together. The
whole RABs on one side and Hubs on both sides only took a couple of
hours. I think I spent most of a day the first time around. With the
RABs and tight bearings I also got rid of a pull to the left under
hard braking. I remain amazed at how well this vehicle holds up, now
that the clunk is gone it's alot more like the smooth, quiet vehicle I
was impressed by originally.
--
Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts:

"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the
establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . .
Whenever Government means to invade the rights and liberties of
the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order
to raise a standing army upon its ruins." -- Debate, U.S. House
of Representatives, August 17, 1789