Body Bushing Install

[rusty1161]

My truck has the classic 12 year old sagging OEM bushings. They sag so much, that I believe it is the cause of my downpipe rubbing when I get the EGTs up and it expands. It only happens when pulling a good grade for a decent number of miles, like at least 5 or six miles, it happened the first time pulling up out of Santa Clarita into Palmdale/Lancaster on the 14 Freeway. Anyway, time to replace them so I ordered a set of poly bushings.

I just read in the last Diesel Power Mag about the IDI turbo install and they did bushings in that article. They used a gear puller, a section of 4" exhaust tubing and the OEM bolt. I thought I had a piece of 4" in the garage, but no dice. So off to the hardware store to search for a suitable replacement. I bought an ABS 3" coupling. It worked perfectly. I got the middle bushing apart no problem, without too much cursing on that one. I am leaving in the morning for Mammoth Lakes, so I ran out of time and for the life of me could not get the rear bushing apart, so I just got the front and middle one done on the passenger side of the truck, there is more clearance for the downpipe, so I should be good for this trip. I am soaking the rest of the nuts with PB Blaster so that I can knock out the rest when I get back. I didn't take pics this time, I will when I take care of the rest of the bushings. Looking at the driver's side, it looks like the rear is going to require dropping the tank, any tips here? Thanks.

[ryandamo]

i read the same article this week and ordered a set while on vacation yesterday. I seem to be having the same problem with the down pipe. If you need to move the tank that shouldn't be too hard, just make sure you support it, remove the tank belt and drop it just enough to get in, you probably don't have to go crazy completely removing all the attachments unless you need to drop it that far.