[HO455]

Yesterday and today's project was to replace the body mount rubber bushings. I purchased the same as original set from Classic Heartbeat. This set doesn't come with any hardware. I searched the forum and found a thread with a this link. http://static.summitracing.com/globa.../ens-17332.pdf
Which is a PDF from Energy Suspension showing the bolt specs and locations. I took notes and headed to Winks Hardware, where I purchased the new bolts and a fresh can of anti-sieze. First step was to crawl around and spray penetrating oil on the bolts again, )
(I had already sprayed them twice before since the project started.) I then losened all the nuts, which to my surprise went much easier than expected. Starting with the core support bolts. I removed the bolts for the upper radiator brackets and pulled the radiator up one side at a time and held it up with a small block of wood while I replaced the bolt, washers, rubber spacers, and locking tab. The kit for the core support was complete with all hardware and instructions while the rest had no instructions or hardware. Starting at the back on the passenger side I carefully raised the body with a floor jack. Using a 4x4 block I had placed under the body brace that was farthest back. I was carefull not to lift the body by lifting on the plywood or its bracing. Once lifted I was able to remove the 2 rear most mount bolts on the passenger side. In order remove the bolts I had to use a punch to pound them up from below. To keep the punch from slipping off I threaded one of the old nuts on a couple of turns and that kept the punched trapped. After removing the nut, the bolt pulled up from above without much trouble. Sorry no pictures of the removal, but the first photo shows how crusty they were. My plan was to keep the drivers side attached loosely to the frame in hopes that I would be able to avoid a crisis where the body slides off the frame. After removal I used a needle gun to remove as much rust as I could get to and the relied on sandpaper and a wire brush to clean up the other spots. I placed the new upper blocks on frame and set the body back down. Moving towards the front I placed the 4x4 under the brace between the forward body mount and the second mount the raised the body with the floor jack. Once up I removed the second third and forth mount old bushings and cleaned up the mounts like I did on the rear ones. I set the body back down on the upper bushings and took stock of what else I needed to finish the job. The first issue is that most of the bolts I bought won't work. DOhh!!
The ones specificied on the link were meant to be used with different bushings. See second photo. I have laid them out so you can see the differences in size. (Note that I have mislabeled the size of the bolt pair on the right side that should be 6" not 5 1/4") The carriage bolts that were too long I just cut to length, but I had to buy longer bolts for the first and third mounts (counting front to rear). The second issue is the mounts do not come with the steel sleeve that is in the center of the rubber blocks nor do they come with the washers that are on the bottom of the mount. Quickly dashing across town to Winks for parts. The steel sleeves are 2 different sizes, the first mount is 7/8" OD, and the rest are 1" OD. At the hardware store they have 7/8" spacers, but all are too short. I so get a 6" 1/2" pipe galvanized nipple as it is 7/8" OD. They do have 1" steel spacers but all are too long and will have to be cut down. I was able to get the washers for the bottom of back 4 mounts but the front set calls for a thicker washer they didn't have in stock. With the new hardware and sleeve material I'm off. An hour later the sleeves are cut to size and we are ready for day two. The 7/8" sleeves are 1 7/8" long and the 1" sleeves are 1 1/8" long. The ID's are in the second photo. In addition my Suburban has thick washers between the top rubber and the body. I don't know if they are stock or not. I am sure that the front bushing set has been replaced at some time.