What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Rear shackle bushings - TC springs / ORD kit question.

Desert Rat

Desert Rat

Fetch the comfy chair
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Posts
16,246
Reaction score
15
Location
Tri-Valley, NorCal
I'm just full of questions today. Ok, I get my TC 6" springs out today to drill out the bushings and get the ORD HD shackle ready to put on w/ greasable bushings. The TC springs came with polyurethane bushings w/ a part number on them of M02041. They look like Daystar bushings to me. I get them out of the rear spring eye, and get my ORD shackle bushings ready to install. Hmmm, the ORD greasables are waaaaaaaaay smaller than the bushing that just came out. I break out my instructions and see that the bushings ORD lists for aftermarket springs are M02196 and M02043. Those are the numbers on the bushings I have. What gives? How come the bushing that came out of the rear spring eye is monstrous by comparison to the ORD bushing? I have an e-mail into ORD, but does anyone know what the deal is? Pics here:

Spring eye, TC bushing, and ORD bushing
8524Front_shackle_bushings_1-med.jpg


TC bushing next to ORD bushing
8524Front_shackle_bushings_2-med.jpg
 
I Hope I am wrong, but the bushing you drilled out looks like it has the grease grooves that ORD places in them. You may have killed the bushing that is supposed to go on your truck springs. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
 
Are these springs fronts or rears?

If they are the fronts, you look like you got the wrong forward bushings as those in the pics fit Skyjacker and Superlift springs. All the other lift brand springs use the bigger bushing like you removed.
 
Nah, per the instructions, there are the two sets of bushings for the shackle kit. You have to order the front spring bushing separate from ORD too. For the shackle kit one goes on the springs, one goes on the frame. On the rear, the bushings that go in the frame have a narrower shoulder and a slight taper. The one that goes on the spring has a thick shoulder. I removed the front bushing and found that the bushing that TC put in is the same bushing that ORD lists as one of the rear bushings. Looks like they both use Daystar bushings. The bushing that I cut out does have the grooves for greasable bolts. However, the sleeve that was in it was too thick for a greasable bolt. I just think maybe I got the wrong bushing for the spring eye and need the thicker one. It also looks like Daystar has jumped on the greasable bandwagon since they now list them on their site as well.
 
I still don't understand why you had to butcher those bushings in the first place. All you had to do was get a flat punch and tap out the inner sleeve and then pop out the bushings....all without damaging them.

Did you order or get the forward spring bushings that had to be ordered extra? The HD shackle kit only comes with the bushings to do the shackle end only.

I also don't understand what you mean the "sleeve that was in it was too thick for a greasable bolt." The very front spring bolts are 9/16" and the rear shackle bolts are 7/16" stock where ORD changes them out to 1/2".

I think you must have gotten confused here and got the wrong bushings removed and mixed up. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
 
That's funny, I just installed the same front springs in my 76 about 12 hours ago, along with the ORD shackles. All that is required to be done on the springs is to change the sleeve in the rear bushings so the 1/2" bolt will fit.

Andy
 
[ QUOTE ]
That's funny, I just installed the same front springs in my 76 about 12 hours ago, along with the ORD shackles. All that is required to be done on the springs is to change the sleeve in the rear bushings so the 1/2" bolt will fit.

Andy

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo! Yep, just the sleeve is all thats needed to swap out, but only if the current bushings already have the grooves in them.

I found this out also with some Skyjacker springs I got. Those are red bushings and also had grooves in them. They also had the same numbers on the bushings as the TC and ORD stuff. My guess is Daystar is "the" bushing company lift kit manufacturers use for their springs. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
I still don't understand why you had to butcher those bushings in the first place. All you had to do was get a flat punch and tap out the inner sleeve and then pop out the bushings....all without damaging them.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's the same question I asked myself after I found I could do that with the other spring. I have been messing with three Blazers and have had to drill, cut, and burn out all the other bushings and didn't stop to think that these might come out easier. They did and I wasted one bushing.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you order or get the forward spring bushings that had to be ordered extra? The HD shackle kit only comes with the bushings to do the shackle end only.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe these are a set that came with one of the Blazers I bought. I'm guessing that the shackle set I have is the other one of two that ORD offers and I just needed to order the right bushing for the spring eye.

[ QUOTE ]
I also don't understand what you mean the "sleeve that was in it was too thick for a greasable bolt." The very front spring bolts are 9/16" and the rear shackle bolts are 7/16" stock where ORD changes them out to 1/2".

[/ QUOTE ]

The Tuff Country springs have poly bushings already in them. Looks like they put in greasable style bushings, but the sleeve that came with it had thicker walls, so that one of the greasable bolts would not slide into it. I think that thatK30guy is right. TC and other companies use Daystar bushings. I probably could've just ordered the sleeve and greasable bolt.

[ QUOTE ]
I think you must have gotten confused here and got the wrong bushings removed and mixed up.

[/ QUOTE ]

No mixup. The instructions are pretty clear. I just think I inherited a shackle set with the wrong spring eye bushing. I have an e-mail into ORD but come Monday, I will call them and I suspect that I will have to order a set of spring eye greasable bushings/bolts. I have a brand new set of Energy Suspension bushings laying around but they aren't greasable unfortunately. It was one of those weekends where rectal cranial inversion was the order of the day I did way too much leaping before looking /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif. I decided to remove my A/C from the 76 too. I won't tell you what happened when I pulled off one of the hoses...... /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif On a brighter note, I did sell my hidden winch mount, winch, and bull bar to Dremu.....
 
[ QUOTE ]
It was one of those weekends where rectal cranial inversion was the order of the day I did way too much leaping before looking

[/ QUOTE ]

Been there, done that, too many times, and still doing it, too! /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif

Hope you get the problem fixed so you can get the rig back on the road again! /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif
 
Ok, just got off the phone with Steve at ORD. It was something rather simple. Seems TC put the sticker on the springs that says "Front of vehicle" with an arrow backwards on the springs /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif. So, the sticker was telling me that the big spring eye was to the rear and the small spring eye to the front. So, those that said that the spring was backwards, were actually right. Either way, I had to order up a front set of greasable bushings so I really didn't lose out on cutting that one bushing. ORD sells the fronts as a set anyways.
 
What's wrong with this picture:

8524wrong_way_sticker-med.jpg

8524Sticker-med.jpg


I'll have to spray paint over it so I don't get the "Hey, your springs are on backwards" comments I guess... /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
What's wrong with this picture:

8524wrong_way_sticker-med.jpg

8524Sticker-med.jpg


I'll have to spray paint over it so I don't get the "Hey, your springs are on backwards" comments I guess... /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Theres the culprit alright! Blame Canada....errrr....I mean Tough Country! /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif
 
Must've been "French" Canadian /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif...... /forums/images/graemlins/usaflag.gif
 
and people wonder why we try to pull out hair out sometimes working on our trucks when we get [darn] like this happening to us. you see if you put it in without using the directions or reading the stickers you might be better off sometimes it can be less of a headache /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crewcab.gif /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif /forums/images/graemlins/hack.gif /forums/images/graemlins/weld.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
8524wrong_way_sticker-med.jpg


[/ QUOTE ]

hey, your springs are on backwards, you need to turn them around. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif











sorry couldn't resist /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif
 
They're actually good old american guys that slapped it on backwards, either in salt lake or at the spring company that I can't remember now, but they are US manufacture. I sometimes wish they'd just let you figure it out, it doesn't take long to get it straight when the bolt sizes are dramatically different, but when the very authoritative sticker says the wrong thing, it's pretty confusing.
The bushings we use in the shackles now are DIFFERENT from the "stock" bushings for the aftermarket springs, despite the same part #. We use a different bushing compound to toughen them up a bit so don't just replace the inner sleeve and go on.
 
I ordered up the right ones from you yesterday. Does that mean however that the shackle kit that came with one of my Blazers has the first generation bushings that are softer? I bought the Blazer a year a go and the shackle kit came with it, but wasn't installed yet. I remember a thread some time back about the bushings in those kits taking a beating and you making a change.
 
They could be the older "soft" bushings, I think we went with the hard compound about a year ago, maybe a bit more? I'd have to look it up to be sure. They don't just fall apart (there's only about 15 pages of info about this from that time period if you really want to know all about it) but we have the hard compound on the shelf ready to go if you want them. Let us know and we can combine them with another order to ease the shipping pain. I think the rest of your stuff left already.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom