Installing wet bolts for springs, huge pain in the a.. Any suggestions?

[EriikK]

Our 2014 Forest River 25' toyhauler has lots of happy miles on it, and there is a fair amount of groaning and some clunking from the suspension. So I took it apart and sure enough the nylon bushings are all tore up and the pivot bolts are rusty. I ordered a new wet bolts kit which turns out to be made by Dexter. The two axles are Lippert but it looks like everything is nominally the right size. 9/16 bolts, 11/16 spring eyes, 1 3/4 wide springs. But...

The new bronze bushings don't fit in the holes in the spring eyes. The spring eyes are quite tapered, the bushing goes in a little way but not all the way. And yes I tried using a bolt to pull the bushing in, no go. The bushing collapsed to the point where the bolt was very hard to get out, but the bushing was not even halfway into the spring eye. And now that I have investigated further, I see that some spring eyes are larger than others. An 11mm socket from my toolkit goes easily through some of the spring eyes and won't go into others far at all.

The bushings are nominally 11/16 OD = 0.6875" and measure 0.700" with my caliper. So I got an 11/16 drill bit and tried to drill out the spring eyes. But the steel is very hard (doh, springs...) so the drill doesn't make much progress.

Before I started I called around, all the trailer shops are super busy, quoted super long lead times or crazy money or excuses. It seemed like they didn't really want to do this job, and now maybe I know why. So putting it back together and taking it to the shop is not a great option.

What should I do next? What would you do? All suggestions are welcome.

 

[phil-t]

How much material needs to come out of the spring eye, or off the OD of the new bushing? You could maybe take them to a machine shop and have them fitted.

 

[Utclmjmpr]

Bronze is much easier to work with than hardened steel..>>>Dan

 

[boatbuilder]

You might be able to put the bushings on a bolt and run the OD on a sander to get them to fit. You might have to customize each one. Spring eyes are not always uniform as you can tell.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Caveat - I have limited trailer repair experience. But are these leaf springs? I do have experience with those. Any spring shop can do magic with leaf springs. I would bet if you took the springs and the bushings to a spring shop they would fix you right up. This is all they do all day long and there is no doubt in my mind anything you bring them they have seen a thousand times before.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Jaycomlok]

Clean the rust out of the spring eye and custom fit by sanding the bushing down or even better if you know someone with a metal lathe that turn them down to the size you need.

 

[EriikK]

I ended up using a carbide burr in an air die grinder to open up the spring eyes. It was slow but not difficult. Great suggestion turning down the OD of the bushings in a lathe. But the spring eyes were quite tapered, each one different, and not easy to measure accurately. So it would have taken many trips back and forth between the lathe and the camper, and they were on opposite sides of town.

 

[Rene T]

I ended up using a carbide burr in an air die grinder to open up the spring eyes. It was slow but not difficult. Great suggestion turning down the OD of the bushings in a lathe. But the spring eyes were quite tapered, each one different, and not easy to measure accurately. So it would have taken many trips back and forth between the lathe and the camper, and they were on opposite sides of town.

It’s been a while but thanks for getting back to us. I know this will probably help someone else.

 

[CharlesinGA]

I don't think I saw this earlier, but the bushings new are already too thin to turn down. I think I would have looked into a reamer, either an adjustable one, or one that would give me a light drive fit. In any case, its good to see you got it done.

The issue I had was getting the splines under the bolt head, into the bracket on the frame on the fixed end of the spring (the rest are into the shackles and the kit would have come with them already pressed in (and I have a hydraulic press if they were not)

I did this earlier this year on my 2008 Bigfoot. Dexter kit (bought from Etrailer as a clearance with one shackle plate missing, which I ordered separately all for way less than a new complete kit). I have Standen axles and springs. My only concern was a nearly loose fit on a couple of the bushings.

Again, thanks for the follow up.

Charles

 

[lavarock1210]

Before you finish be sure to check all of the grease holes in the bolts. I had several bolts where the grease hole was not completely drilled to the cross hole. I did the check by making sure the bolts would accept grease before I installed them.

 

[Lou Schneider]

Also the grease holes should face upwards, not down or the weight resting on the bolt can stop grease from coming out.

 

[Contributor]

I realize the OP solved his problem but putting the bushings in the freezer overnight may have taken care of the fit issue.