OME Rear Leaf Springs and Bushings on 1986 Pickup - Bushing Sleeves? (and bump stops) (1 Viewer)

[kanurys]

Hello everyone and thanks for reading my first post here. I have an 86 pickup xtra cab that I had to cut one leaf spring out of upon disassembly. It was rusted and quite sized so bad heat, impact, breaker, etc.. wouldn't get the bolts loose. In the process I damaged the sleeve on the forward bushing of the old leaf spring. What should I replace this sleeve with to work with the original bolt and OME bushings?

Also any source or ideas for replacement bump stops for these? (not that I'll need them with no load and the stiffer OME springs)

 

[pappy]

First, welcome to our slice of MUD <-official MUD welcome.

Ya, those sleeves are a PITA on old springs and you always need to cut them off. The two solutions are to ...

1. Get replacement bushings with new sleeves. I believe all the bushing kits include them. I've gotten away from using poly bushings and gone back to good old Toyota rubber. You can't buy them in a "kit" since they are sold single. But, if you shop at a discount dealer the cost is not much more than poly. Well, except the rear bushing with the spacer. That one is stupid money.

2. Drill out the hanger holes and install 18mm bolts. Somebody was selling the bolts and nuts, but I can't remember who (4Crawler?). You need to use special nuts since you can't just crank down on the nuts. The sleeve keeps you from over compressing the bushing. Some folks use good old nylon-inserted locknuts which work fine, but I prefer the distorted-thread type. The only issue is making sure the bolt on the passenger side doesn't contact the gas tank.

 

[pappy]

Rear spring poly bushing kit from Rockauto.com.

Discount code: RockAuto.com Discount Code - Expires January 14, 2022 - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/rockauto-com-discount-code-expires-january-14-2022.1266360/

 

[kanurys]

Thanks for the detailed response. I like the idea of keeping it stock. I'll do a little more research and see if I can track down some properly sized sleeves. If I fail at that, option #1 sound like the way I'd go. I like the idea of keeping this truck mostly stock.

 

[pappy]

Thanks for the detailed response. I like the idea of keeping it stock. I'll do a little more research and see if I can track down some properly sized sleeves. If I fail at that, option #1 sound like the way I'd go. I like the idea of keeping this truck mostly stock.

Look at the Rockauto links. They had full kits that included the sleeves.

 

[kanurys]

Will do. Thanks again. I'll post up here with an update when it's all sorted.

 

[kanurys]

After some research I found the following: Energy Suspension has a part number for just the sleeve, but it's lead time is 10-12 weeks. The part number is 15.10.06.39.

The spacer dimensions are:
2.750" L x 0.75" OD x .562" ID

Making this all moot, I just heard from ARB/OME and they said that they'll just send me two bushings.