I have worked in the automotive service business most of my life. RV's are somewhat new to me, but there are many similarities with them and their cousins... cars and trucks. I am a long time automotive enthusiast and hope to help others by providing any info I can. In the following blogs I will attempt to describe repairs and maintenance in terms that everyone can understand.
Thanks for reading my blog!
F53 rear sway bar bushings causing excessive sway
A factory sway bar is designed to limit the amount of side to side sway between the axle and the frame of the vehicle it is mounted on. It limits the amount of roll by transferring downward force to the opposite side of the axle, thus reducing sway. Every sway bar has a pre-determined amount of twist built into it by design. The thicker the sway bar, the less amount of twist is generated. This system works well if everything is within design tolerances.
OK, now that all of that technical jargon is out of the way, here's the scoop.
I had just purchased my pre-owned motor home. My shake down cruise turned into an emergency 1200 mile trip to WA. The entire trip I was not aware that my MH should not be swaying almost all of the time. When I got home, I read allot of forum comments about shocks, airbags, track bars, etc etc. I read what I thought the problem was and ordered rear air bags and front Koni FSD shocks.
During the install of the rear air bags, I removed the rear dually's and found both the rear sway bar insulators were worn out and missing. Hummm, I think I could have saved a ton of money if I had found this first, but oh well, I'm sure I needed all of this other stuff anyway.
I then found some threads about the known issue of sway bar bushing failure on f53's. I also found a link to an ebay supplier that sells polyurethane sway bar bushings and ordered a set.
When I first bought the vehicle I inspected under the chassis and I remember looking at the sway bar end links, and they looked great. I just didn't look up high enough to see the failed insulators near the top of the axle.
The important thing is I found it now and it is a very simple repair.
If I had found this during my pre-purchase inspection I would have negotiated a better price and I would have been able to repair it in about 20 minutes. I would have jacked up the rear frame slightly and loosened the sway bar links, then remove the caps for the sway bar insulators. The new insulators have a split in them so they can be installed without sliding them onto one end of the sway bar.
That's it for today, at least until my next project is revealed to me.
OK, now that all of that technical jargon is out of the way, here's the scoop.
I had just purchased my pre-owned motor home. My shake down cruise turned into an emergency 1200 mile trip to WA. The entire trip I was not aware that my MH should not be swaying almost all of the time. When I got home, I read allot of forum comments about shocks, airbags, track bars, etc etc. I read what I thought the problem was and ordered rear air bags and front Koni FSD shocks.
During the install of the rear air bags, I removed the rear dually's and found both the rear sway bar insulators were worn out and missing. Hummm, I think I could have saved a ton of money if I had found this first, but oh well, I'm sure I needed all of this other stuff anyway.
I then found some threads about the known issue of sway bar bushing failure on f53's. I also found a link to an ebay supplier that sells polyurethane sway bar bushings and ordered a set.
When I first bought the vehicle I inspected under the chassis and I remember looking at the sway bar end links, and they looked great. I just didn't look up high enough to see the failed insulators near the top of the axle.
The important thing is I found it now and it is a very simple repair.
If I had found this during my pre-purchase inspection I would have negotiated a better price and I would have been able to repair it in about 20 minutes. I would have jacked up the rear frame slightly and loosened the sway bar links, then remove the caps for the sway bar insulators. The new insulators have a split in them so they can be installed without sliding them onto one end of the sway bar.
That's it for today, at least until my next project is revealed to me.
Total Comments 1
Comments
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found similar problem after during first trip in our MoHo only I discovered it was the bracket that was broken (mine has the sheet steel brackets rather than the block type). Also looked fine when I peeked under the coach. Wasn't until I did a slow inspection of the whole underside that i found it. The split part was quite rusty so it had been that way for quite awhile. Replaced the bracket and did the cheap handling fix and now no more swaying.Posted 10-18-2013 at 01:32 PM by hochmuth1957 
