ES Bushing REplacement for Rear Tie Bars

ES Bushing Replacement: Rear Tie Bars

Tools needed
14mm Open-End Wrench
14mm Box-End Wrench
17mm Socket
12mm Socket
1/2, 3/8, 1/4 drive ratchet
1/2 - 3/8 drive adapter (if you dont have 1/2 drive sockets)
Torque Wrench (up too 100ft lbs.)
2.5 Ton Jack
3 Ton Jack Stands
6" Bench Vise (you can use a 4" but it takes more time)
6" x 3/8 carriage bolt w/ 3/8 nut
2" x 3/8 Washer (or stock hexagon washer)
1 1/2" ID iron pipe coupling
lots of washers to fit the 3/8 bolt
Hose clamp
Shop towels
Latex gloves (helps keep hands clean)

Remove Tie-rods from the car
Start by raising and supporting the vehicle with a jack and appropriate Jack stands. Secure the vehicle with both. I do not want anyone to get hurt doing this by the car falling down on them.
Take the tire of with a 4 way tire iron. It helps if you loosen the lugs before taking the car off the ground with the Jack.
Once the tire is off you will see the rear drum (or disc if you have them) behind the rear drum you will see the rear suspension arms and rear suspension tie-rod. We will be changing the rear suspension tie-rod bushings.
Behind the rear drum is a 17mm bolt that holds the tie rod to the spindle. Using the Torque Wrench or a 1/2 drive ratchet with a helper pipe loosen this 17mm bolt.
Further up the tie-rod bar the E-brake cable is held on with a 12mm nut. You can use the 1/4 drive ratchet to loosen this or if you think you’ll need a little more force use the 3/8 drive ratchet. This is a small nut and bolt so be careful not to break it. bolt and nut will flex a little while trying to loosen them.
Further up the tie-rod bar you will see the bar literally go into the metal framing on the car. On the outside of the framing you will notice a single 17mm bolt towards the inside edge of the framing. Again using the Torque Wrench or 1/2 drive ratchet and the 17mm bolt (with the helper bar if necessary) remove this bolt.
You should now be able to remove the the tie-rod bar completely from the car. Take the tie-rod bar and put it in your bench vise.
The Removal, The Lube, The Press
using the 1 1/2" Pipe coupler and the hexagon shaped washer from off the car alone with the 3/8 nut and other 3/8 washers we are going to make our own bushing press / remover. Start by putting a 3/8 nut on the carriage bolt. The nut should rest about 1/2" from the head of the carriage bolt. Next put the hexagon washer on the carriage bolt. Then put the pipe coupler over the bolt. The pipe coupler should not be able to go beyond the hexagon washer. The pipe couple should then rest against the tie-rod arm with the carriage bolt going through the center of the bushing. Put a few 3/8 washers on the side that is through the bushing along with the 3/8 nut. We have just created our bushing press / remover.
To remove the bushing use the 14mm Open-End Wrench to hold back on the pipe coupler side of the bushing press / remover while the 14mm Box-End Wrench turns the 3/8 nut on the washer side of the bushing press / remover.
The bushing should push out into the pipe coupler. Take the 3/8 nut off the washer side of the bushing press / remover and repeat steps 1, 2 and 3.
Before we press the new bushings in we need to clean the rod eyes(where the bushings set). Sand the inside down with a little sand paper to get rid of the rust that has built up in there and to remove peices of rubber the stock bushings may have left behind. Using a shop towel wipe the insides of the rod eyes clean.
Before you get your hands sticky push the metal sleeves out of the bushings.
Next using the supplied bearing grease (ES Bushing master kit comes with little tubs of the stuff) lightly lube the inside of the rod eye.
Lightly lube metal sleeve and push back into bushing.
Lightly lube outside of bushing.
Once done lubing make sure you have the right bushing for the right rod-eye. They are 2 different sizes. Take the bushing press / remover and place the hexagon washer and couple against the nut. Place the coupler against the rod-eye. One the other side, place the bushing against the rod eye. Next you need a large washer and the 3/8 nut. Tighten this down so that the assembly does move but you are not going to push the bushing in yet.
Take the hose clamp and place it on the bushing side of the rod-eye. You want the hose clamp to secure against the rod eye and the bushing. This will prevent the bushing from smooshing up and not seating correctly.
Once the hose clamp is secure we can start tightening the 3/8 nut on the bushing side. This will push the bushing into the rod eye. After a bit you should notice the bushing almost “sucking” itself into the rod eye. You will know when the bushing is set when the flared part of the bushing is against the rod-eye. Make sure not to tighten too much or you will pushing the bushing right back out through the other side into the coupler.
Repeat steps 1-12 as needed (should only be done 4 times, 2 rod-eyes per side, 2 bushings per side)
The Re-install
I won’t get into details here as if your this far and don’t know how to put it back together your pretty much SOL. The re-installation is the reverse of the dis-assembly. You may need to use some force to push the Tie-rod bars back into the frame on the car.
Place the 17mm bolt into the upper frame and the other bolt back into the spindle and tighten. Secure the E-brake cable with the 12mm nut and bracket. The 17mm bolts need to be torqued with the Torque-Wrench. I torqued them to 81ft lbs as this was in the middle of the range that was suggested on the Ford Repair CD.
Put the tires back on and tighten the lug nuts down. You can now remove the jack stand/s and lower the car. Once on the ground make sure the lugs are tighten. You can use the Torque-Wrench to get them to factory specs. I am brave and tightened them by feel.
Repeat all these steps for the other side of the car

Is this for the latteral arms(fore and aft) or port to starboard ones?

Sorry for the newbish Q’s…

Mac

sorry i forgot to add pictures when i originally wrote this how-to up. Thanks for the repost Mike!

The ‘fore’ trailing arms are the bushings that are included in the kit. hope that answers you question. They run from the knuckle to the uni-body rail.

I just did my second set of trailing arms bushings,
kind of a PITA,

The 1st set was 3 years ago and don’t remember them being so hard to do as this set,
but it was 3 years ago and 2 Z’s ago too…

Now to get over this pulled back muscle so I can install them in the car…(Thanks goodness for a spare set of everything,parts cars are a blessing sometimes)

Mac