[Richard]

I am going to attempt this post in segments, listing the reader’s digest summary first. Not everyone wan’t to read about my follies. 

Segment 1:

I had feared working on the suspension parts in the front end because four years of searching and calling had not produced even one person who could identify a source of new parts. However, it was obvious I had several failed bushings. Again I launched into an intense search for parts. I have found documentation that listed DANA part numbers, but no source. Even DANA in England where the parts were made was at a loss. Their answer, I am sorry the plant closed in 2001, and has since been razed. Lovely. 

Our guru buddy, Bill Johnson, rescued my behind. He had a photo of the bushing, no dimensions, and used Google Lens to search for the part. He found an EXACT substitute. 

Voila, this is the part. https://www.finditparts.com/products/968...rce=webapp

I confirmed that is an exact dimensional replacement. I also measured the Durometer of the rubber, and it is the same as the original. 70a.

[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.

[Richard]

Segment three:

I learned a ton on the first side.

Lesson one, the a arms can be removed without total disassembly of the front end. If you remove the upper or lower one at a time then the front hub and brake caliper can be left in place. Supported of course,  but easier than juggling 500 lbs of uncooperative metal. It’s six bolts per arm, four on the frame and two on the steering knuckle.
   

Lesson two, a 27 mm slugging wrench makes getting the bolts attaching the A arms to the frame WAY easier because the A arm will not swing far enough out of the way to get an impact wrench on the inner bolt. https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Striking-W...hdGY&psc=1

Lesson three, although the DANA IFS suspension is much maligned in the Country Coach and Foretravel forums the suspension is actually very clever. The moving parts of the steering knuckle in both up and down and steering movement are tapered roller bearings not kingpins. Your mileage may vary, but I discovered with all the heavy bits removed that the roller bearing joints were smooth and without discernible play. That was very good news.

Lesson four, the picture will show a jig I made to compress the suspension bushing while in place. In hind sight, just remove the A arm and take it to a press. Did I mention that getting the old circlip out was a BEAR?
   

Lesson five, take this to a professional. This was a monster project, toughest I have undertaken. The parts are heavy, the tools needed are big, and it would be easy to get injured. I worked slowly and with caution. I am happy to report no blood was shed or anything broken, not even close.

[Richard]

In conclusion:

Unbelievable thanks to Bill Johnson for finding the part. I had spent over a hundred hours looking for this part. I talked to Henderson’s, Josams, Prevost, Newell, DANA, and several aftermarket producers of suspension bushings, and no one could produce a part for restoring this front end. Bill did. My appreciation is immense, and his contribution to future rebuilds of the front end is incredible.

Many thanks to Bill and Russ for helping me. This would have been even harder trying to work by myself.

I have an appointment with Josams for alignment. I am confident to set the toe, but the camber needs adjustment and it needs to be within 0.25 of a degree. I am not confident to do that.

I will report back on driving behavior after alignment.

Afterthought: one might ask if I had any early warning signs the bushings were close to failure. Yes I did. One, I had seen rubber exuding around the straddle beam in the bushing. Duh huh. That was obvious. The sign that was not obvious was a deep metallic thump somewhere in the front under the seats. I never could figure that out, until the bushing completely failed, and the thunk went away. In hindsight, that was the internal part of the bushing rattling against the outside part of the bushing. Once it completely failed, it was metal to metal and stopped rattling. There was not a noticeable difference in the way the coach handled on the freeway

Sorry for War and Peace. This and the tryptophan from the turkey should make for a good nap.

[[email protected]]

In conclusion:

Unbelievable thanks to Bill Johnson for finding the part. I had spent over a hundred hours looking for this part. I talked to Henderson’s, Josams, Prevost, Newell, DANA, and several aftermarket producers of suspension bushings,  and no one could produce a part for restoring this front end. Bill did. My appreciation is immense, and his contribution to future rebuilds of the front end is incredible.

Many thanks to Bill and Russ for helping me. This would have been even harder trying to work by myself.

I have an appointment with Josams for alignment. I am confident to set the toe, but the camber needs adjustment and it needs to be within 0.25 of a degree. I am not confident to do that.

I will report back on driving behavior after alignment.

Afterthought: one might ask if I had any early warning signs the bushings were close to failure. Yes I did. One, I had seen rubber exuding around the straddle beam in the bushing. Duh huh. That was obvious. The sign that was not obvious was a deep metallic thump somewhere in the front under the seats. I never could figure that out, until the bushing completely failed, and the thunk went away. In hindsight, that was the internal part of the bushing rattling against the outside part of the bushing. Once it completely failed, it was metal to metal and stopped rattling. There was not a noticeable difference in the way the coach handled on the freeway

Sorry for War and Peace. This and the tryptophan from the turkey should make for a good nap.

Wow, I was wondering how this project was going to turn out. I figured it was going to be a big undertaking. Great to have a source for those bushings. So I take it there are 4 of those bushings per side? 
Yea I had noticed the roller bearing design for the spindle support and thought that was a great design, should be fairly robust in that application, especially since they really do not spin they just move slightly up and down. Lots of impact force on them but I suspect they appear to be sized to handle it just fine. 
Glad you were able to get through the project without bloodshed. I was just putting batteries in my golf car today and busted my knuckle open…

[bikestuff]

Here are a few pictures of the specifications / part number in case FindItParts quits stocking them.

Good job Richard on blazing the trail.

Bill

[[email protected]]

Here are a few pictures of the specifications / part number in case FindItParts quits stocking them.

Good job Richard on blazing the trail.

Bill

Very good idea, tried to put 8 of them in my cart from find it parts and says there is only 1 left. 

Searching some of the cross reference numbers I came up with one place that has them, but the find it parts was a deal compared to these. Apparently they must be used on Volvo equipment:
https://shop.heavyequipment-parts.com/Pr...3&termType=

[Richard]

Yes they are used on a Volvo V-rod suspension. And yes the Automan versions are made in India.

I saw nothing in the Automan parts that made me question the quality. I measured with a caliper and they were exact matches for what came out. And the rubber was the same Durometer measured on my device.

[Jack Houpe]

If I ever need front bushings I'll buy them and take to Josams, I could feel my bones aching as I was reading your post. Great job and documentation, thank you for sharing.

If you ever need raw polyurethane let me know I have source, it can be machined pretty easy if you don't get in big hurry or it can be made in place.

[Latitude 28]

I am with Jack on this one, Josams has the capabilities hands down! Fantastic work and parts finding while documenting the process. I am going to start using Google Lens from now on as I have had a need in the past for this tool that Bill used! Speaking of finding parts....don't forget eBay as there is a current listing for this part.