ATTENTION !!!! Ford F-53 Owners READ!!

[2Labs]

Originally Posted by TeJay

2Labs,

The more I thought about your post the more concerned I got. Please do let us know how it works out for you. If you lived an hour or two from us I'd be there today to help with those SB set ups. It troubles me to hear of these things happen once let alone several times.

TeJay - Thanks for your comments, knowledge, concern and offer of help!

So here's whats happened today and the plan for this weekend.

Today I completed the replacement of the rear SB bushings - torquing all bolts to 66 ft lbs - with blue locktite. I did source a replacement (grade 8) upper bolt for the drivers side locally - while I am waiting for the delivery of the ford sourced bolt.

I also performed the CHF on the rear - it was actually pretty easy to do with everything apart. Just a little muscle was all that was required to get the links in the new position.

So here is a question - does anyone know the proper torque for bolts on the SB links?

The Koni's arrived today and I also spent a few more dollars on tools to complete the job - including a torque wrench that goes to 300 ft lbs. What surprised me with the Koni's for the rear, is that there is no shock boot. The boots on the existing Bilstein's are still in good shape, so I'll likely just reuse them.

Tonight I WD-40'd all the shock bolts - in anticipation of doing both sets of shocks tomorrow - and expect to complete the replacement of the front SB bushings as well.

If all goes to plan - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't - I'll have the upgrades completed early enough tomorrow to take the RV for a test drive.

[TeJay]

All the bolts associated with the SB's and the SB links are torqued to 66 ft/lbs. That makes it easier to remember. How do I know??

I have CD's from Ford from 2009 up to 2015 and they list the torques for all these bolts at 66 ft/lbs and all are the same.

Sounds like you have a plan and that's great. Get er done and let us know how it all works out. It will b an exciting trip I'm sure. Do give us an update.

I'm excited also. We are heading to our Daughters. They bought me/us a new to us Ford Ranger 5-speed. It's a 2000 with a 100,000 miles on it that we will use as our new TOAD. We are swapping our 2002 CIVIC for the Ford. I've only seen pictures of it.

[MrMudstud]

Originally Posted by Dennis Dean

X2 on the Thank you to TeJay. He is always willing to go the extra mile to help and supply knowledge.
Please continue to educate us with your experience and knowledge, as many of us DO appreciate the time you take to respond and offer insight from your many years of service to others.

There's no doubt, TeJay has added a lot of technical info and advice for us who are not as mechanical incline as we would like. I know for sure, I use some of his advice a few times when working on my unit.

TeJay is like EF Hutton; when he talks, everyone listens. We need more people like him on these threads to help us non-gearheads. Job Well Done TeJay.....

[2Labs]

Gettin' everything ready for the shock swap tomorrow ... new Koni's arrived, as did some new tools from Harbor Freight and the 'Depot.

In all likelihood, the max 300 ft/lb torque wrench will only be used for this project - so buying the Pittsburgh/$74 torque wrench from Harbor Freight is an ok deal. I usually like to buy tools of a better quality, but it's likely this torque wrench will only be used 8 times - twice on each shock.

[georgelesley]

Originally Posted by MrMudstud

There's no doubt, TeJay has added a lot of technical info and advice for us who are not as mechanical incline as we would like. I know for sure, I use some of his advice a few times when working on my unit.

TeJay is like EF Hutton; when he talks, everyone listens. We need more people like him on these threads to help us non-gearheads. Job Well Done TeJay.....

+1.

[Dan_S]

Hey TeJay
Where would someone find a set of those Ford CDs?
Thanks
Dan

[TeJay]

Dan S,

The Ford dealers have been getting CD,s for their technicians for years. It's a quick way of keeping the correct information available for the techs. What's even faster is getting it on-line which is what most of the techs do.

So with that information go to any or all the Ford dealers and see if they will give you any of their old CD's?? They really don't use them so they just set around in a drawer collecting dust.

You will have to trick your PC to read them because they will time out after so many months. I have an old lap top and use it. You can change the date read what you need then change it back to the correct date.

What I have not done the research to determine if I can copy the original CD's.

[BnB]

Happy to report my Rear SB is attached to the diff solid as a rock! I also installed the CHF on the front SB w/ the Hellwig 7962 extensions. It will be a couple weeks before we leave the Camdenton, MO area heading towards Omaha so I am looking forward to testing the 'Fix'......... Thanks Tejay for the tip on the rear SB I'm always glad to crawl under my Moho to find I have no issues! Really I am

[TeJay]

BnB,

Great that you found nothing loose. That aside. We do not have a handle as to which year coaches are finding loose SB bolts nor do we really know how or why it is happening.

The answer may be as simple as a defective torque wrench for a month or two at the factory. We don't know how far reaching this issue is. Don't know if it is a recent issue or has been going on for 2, 3, 6 of even 10 years. We are not a government agency collecting data researching then reporting to some agency who will outline a fix. We are just consumers who have a minor issue with a big RV and it should not have happened.

We are fortunate that this is not a SAFETY issue. The only down side if you have a loose or missing SB bracket or bolt is you will loose your SWAY control. It is or can be a minor expense and for sure an inconvenience.

This is JMHO (Just My Humble Opinion) all owners need to check the effected bolts and to add the insurance of some blue lock tight. It for sure will not hurt and for the future may avoid what has happened.

If there are any ME (mechanical engineers) out there do you have any ideas why these bolts are coming loose?? The rear SB is 1-MM smaller than the front but is handling more weight.

The rear bracket is about 1/4" to 3/8" narrower than the front brackets. I do need to get those exact measurements. The front brackets are not coming loose.

[short kid]

TeJay, Thanks again for all of your input. As I explained in #38 post, I have something else for your input. The front SB was removed and replaced with a bigger one, the rear SB was left on and a bigger one was installed with a TB at the same time. This was done by the previous owner about 5k miles ago. My concern is two SB's on the same axle, what do you think about this? My background was driving truck over the road for 25 yrs. , so movement and sway are all part of driving. However I pay attention to passing vehicles and do not get excited by this. I have only put about 2k miles on this unit since purchasing it. The only place I notice anything is on exits, I just slow down more on these. This unit is longer and higher than my previous Class C so I take that into account. I will be doing about 1K in the next 2 weeks and will be paying closer attention to all handeling, but I am happy with it right now. Again thanks for your help to all. By the way, are you by chance attending the IRV2 rally in Elkhart next week? We will be there.

[TeJay]

sk,

I have driven two RV's that had larger SB's and/or two SB on the same axle. The first one i just drove to my house with the owner. He wanted my assessment as to how it drove and handled. I was impressed but I though it was stock because it only had about 8,000 miles. When I looked under the RV it was then that I realized what the previous owner had done. There were two SB's on the rear the stock and another one. And it had a new and thicker one on on the front. Sounds just about what you have. It drove and rode just fine.

My conclusion based on my experiences with that one coach is one can't have to much sway control (up to a point). We also performed the CHF on the front of his coach and he reported that it drove even better on his return trip home.

That was a very telling experience for me and sure made me believe in good sway control.

No we are not going to attend the 1RV2 rally. Had I known about it sooner I might have tried. Maybe we can plan on it in the future.

Another coach was longer and he was very happy with the sway control. It had new after market SB's on the front and rear. I'm sure but did not measure them that they were larger in diameter. He was happy so we did not do the CHF.

Any other questions or concerns just post or send me a PM.

[2Labs]

Alrighty then ... Labor Day is appropriate description for me this weekend

I got a lot of things done so far this weekend on the RV - not everything I wanted, but that's how it goes. Items to check off the list:

- rear poly SB bushings, done!
- rear CHF, done!
- new Konis front and rear, done!
- powerwash the RV, done!
- zep wax, done! -- we'll see how I like it tomorrow. I do see a few drips tonight that I will need to deal with tomorrow. I have not yet zep'd the roof. Now, did I zep over some imperfections - yes. Do I have a week to clean up every imperfection before applying zep? No

I was a little hesitant on doing the zep - but the RV "bled" white paint noticeably during the wash cycle, and she's 12 years old AND she looks pretty nice right now with the first application of zep.

What didn't get done?

- front SB bushings. After getting 3 of the 4 bolts loosened - and WOW, loosening these bolts was nearly as hard as the rear shock bolts, I found that the last bolt is rounded and I could not get the socket on it securely enough to remove it. I decided it was best to re-tighten the other 3 bolts, rather than risk not being able to drive the RV. It's likely that this 4th bolt will need to be cut off. The current bushing are still solid/appear to be in good shape, so I'll be ordering 4 new bolts/nuts for the front SB and then tackle that when they come in

- CHF on the front. I can see how using the stock links will bring the SB really close to the leaf springs. I think I may just order new links for the front, and have a local place extend them to 14" center to center for me, and then try the front CHF.

So after all the suspension work, how does the RV handle?

Pretty darn well I think! I took her out for a few runs and I can certainly feel the improvement in the chassis:

- there is much less body roll/rocking while taking corners

- while a bump in the road is still a bump, I feel that the Koni's absorb them much better. I can still feel the road bumps, but to me - it seems that they are absorbed at/below the floor level and have much less impact on the upper part of the "house"

- Corners and exit ramps are soooo much easier to take - again house/body roll is significantly reduced. I know that I was able to take the exits that I have taken for 6 years, at a better pace than before, with much better control.

- The overall ride is noticeably improved.

I don't think that I can point to one item that has improved the handling - since I did 3 suspension changes at once (shocks, bushings, CHF), but I will say that the time and money spent on these suspension improvements were well worth it --- although the real review on these changes will come when the DW gets in the RV for a ride

While the SB bushings on the rear and the CHF were relatively easy changes, the shocks were anything but. I had bilsteins all around and I assume these were the original shocks on the RV. The bolts were *really* difficult to get off - especially the lower rear bolts that had 12 years worth of road debris hitting the threads. I did complete the change of all 4 shocks in one day, but for me it was about 7-8 hours. I expect that it would have likely cost me at least 6 hours of labor at our local shop - at a cost of $125/hour. So I definitely saved myself some money - even after spending about $250 on new tools/stuff to complete the job.

I'm glad that I prepped with WD-40 a day prior, but even still, getting the bolts loose took some *SERIOUS* muscle. I had to put my entire body into getting the bolts off, knees/legs up against the tires to give me the most leverage. After the bolt removal, installation and tightening - I was really sore. Nothing a few advil and an adult beverage(s) at the end of the day didn't fix

Installation of the shocks was relatively easy. Given that these are not gas shocks (like the bilsteins), I was able to just extend the shock to the length I needed to install it.

Getting the rear torqued to the correct specs was difficult due to the limited access I could get with the torque wrench - but I got it done -- 1 ratchet click at a time.

So this weekend, my wallet is a LOT lighter, my muscles got a workout, I'm a little sore - but the BEAST handles so much better, got a bath and the zep treatment. In my book, a win all around.

Ohhh, let's not forget that I installed a new fuel pump for the Onan 5500 this weekend also. I had previously replaced the fuel filter (latest revision), carb (latest revision), air filter and oil filter - before our last trip. After replacing the filter and carb with the newest versions, I unhappily discovered, that I should have also replaced the fuel pump with the latest version. Now I can check that off the list as well.

Tomorrow I tackle my headlight problem - adding relays and some custom wiring.

[TeJay]

2Labs,

It will be interesting to get your report from a longer drive and for certain from the DW. We know how important their assessment is.

My guess is the CHF has given you the biggest improvements based on the fact that you also did the SB bushings and that improves the operation of the SWAY control and therefore the CHF.

Your muscles are sore because you used them again. Good for you. Hard work never killed anybody. At 72 I'm still willing and able to crawl under the RV to do the work. A long as I don't have to have 911 pull me out I'll keep doing it. IMHO. being a CP (couch potato) is the worst thing we can do during these late times in our lives.

I do realize that some just can't do it but some also use the pains as an excuse to not keep trying to do the work. My day starts between 5:30 and 6:30 and I go until 10:30 to 11:30. We are visiting the Daughter and family this weekend and my GS just said, "If I hear footsteps early in the morning I know it's you PaPa." That was about 7:15. and the house is still quiet.

Good luck with the electrical upgrades.

We just picked up the new to us TOAD. It is a 2000 (100,040) miles Ford Ranger 5-speed. Our Daughter found it so they bought it and we swapped the 2002 CIVIC for it.

Yesterday with the SIL's tools (not like mine) we installed new front SB bushings, air filter, and fixed the headlight switch. We'll drive it home today. I'll have a lot of work to get it tow-able in the next month.

[Hudsoner]

Originally Posted by TeJay

Your muscles are sore because you used them again. Good for you. Hard work never killed anybody. At 72 I'm still willing and able to crawl under the RV to do the work. A long as I don't have to have 911 pull me out I'll keep doing it. IMHO. being a CP (couch potato) is the worst thing we can do during these late times in our lives.

At half way to 74, I just crawled out from under the motorhome. Had some wires dangling down that called for cable ties too hold them up again.

It is still pretty easy to get down and under the thing, crawling out again and getting up becomes a little more of a challenge.