[Richard]

Segment 2:

As we were returning from Alaska, I noticed in a short period that the right front tire was developing a severe and extremely concerning wear pattern on the outside shoulder. It really made me pucker up to see this in Bozeman MT.

       

To say this started some churn on what was going on is an understatement. I discovered the front end toe in was now 7/8 of an inch. Further investigation showed at least two of the suspension bushings where the A arms attach to the frame were showing signs of failure.

I could not obtain a new 365 tire, and I could not wait for one because of a personal situation. So, I took the tires off the coach and swapped sides. The opposite side tire was not worn. I also used my homemade trammel bar and reset the toe to 1/8 while in a campground. I needed to travel 1000 miles to address the personal issue, so I took a calculated risk that the tire would make it. I stopped every 200 miles and carefully measured the tread depth in the damaged areas to see if it were continuing to degrade. It was not, but it also was not relaxed driving.

Here are pics of the most damaged bushings. While disassembling the front end I also discovered the upper bolt for the passenger shock had disappeared. So the damage to the tire was caused by the excessive toe in caused by the failed bushings AND no shock absorber on that side. Again, lovely.

       

I was able to disassemble one side of the suspension on my RV pad but I caution, this was not a job for the faint of heart. The parts are HEAVY. I used a combination of lift table and engine hoist to get the left side apart. Of course the coach was double cribbed before starting. And when loosening any part, there was support below the part and safety chaining from above to keep it from falling. I focused carefully to never place a body part below the part in question.

Getting the A arms off allowed me to get them to the shop, and start the most difficult task of the project. Removing the internal circlips that hold the bushings in place was a BEAR. First, the bushing has to be compressed to release pressure on the circlip. Second the rusted in place bushings has to be dislodged from the the groove. Third, the circlip was forcibly removed with punches, wedges, screwdrivers, and large hammers. It was not elegant.

After getting one out, Mr. Bill worked his magic act. Woo Hoo is such an understatement. I was already going down the path of making them using castable urethane. The new one goes back in easily but the bushing has to be compressed to get the new circlip into it’s groove. You will see some unusual looking pliers in the photo. Those are locking circlip pliers from McMaster. Those rings easily overpower standard circlip pliers.

Assembly was slow but not difficult.