Apparently Ford is finally recalling V8's for the rear sway bar problem

[NXR]

If you have the NHTSA site for the F-53 bookmarked I've noticed something odd. There are pages for F-53 and for F53. Until this bulletin, the F-53 had more entries. But today the F-53 page does not list the recall while the F53 pages do.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2020/FORD/F53#recalls

So the F-53 page shows the recall for the rear axle lubrication but not the rear sway bar but the F53 page shows the rear sway bar but not the rear axle lubrication. GIGO, I guess.

Ray

[Coarsegold]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

That reads like the sway bar will fall off and create a hazard for other drivers. My immediate remedy would be to attach a short cable to the sway bar and frame- mitigating such an event.


From reading this website I take it, replacing the OEM sway bar is a common practice anyway.

That sounds like something NASCAR would do!

[NXR]

Originally Posted by NXR

The odd thing is the defect notice says this:

Owners will be notified by mail and instructed to take their vehicle to a Ford or Lincoln dealer to inspect bolt torque for both rear stabilizer attachment brackets. If each of the bolt torques on the same bracket are greater than 25Nm, replace weld nuts with flag nuts and replace bolts. Otherwise, if either bolt torque on the same bracket is less than 25Nm, replace weld nuts with flag nuts, replace bolts, and replace bracket.

25 Nm is like 19 ft lbs.

I just looked at that recall again and saw that Ford had updated the text at some point: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/202...2V731-7373.pdf

It now says that if the bolts are less than 25 NM the bracket needs to be replaced. Text was added to say that the bolts themselves should be torqued to 190 ft lbs.

Ray

[mack73]

Originally Posted by NXR

I just looked at that recall again and saw that Ford had updated the text at some point: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/202...2V731-7373.pdf

It now says that if the bolts are less than 25 NM the bracket needs to be replaced. Text was added to say that the bolts themselves should be torqued to 190 ft lbs.

Ray

Makes sense to me, when mine came off it was only held on by 1 bolt and the bracket was slightly bent. Looks like the majority of the time when one of the bolts comes loose it must torque and bend the bracket so replacement is necessary.

[jpspaz]

Originally Posted by RRR

Something must have woke Ford up on this, it has been going on at least since 1999. I'll bet there is a lawsuit involved some where.

I agree, this is not a new issue. It's been talked about in the CHF thread and other places on this site. They should include all F53s from the last 20+ years.

[TeJay]

The problem on the 1999 units F-53 chassis was the failures did not often happen while the unit was still under warranty. Ford fixed those with warranties but just ignored the rest of us. Secondly often many owners just replaced or fixed there own RV because sometimes the miles to a dealer or lack of parts made the wait to long. And they were not that difficult to fix.

You've probably seen how I reinforced my rear brackets so they wouldn't break. In addition adding the blue lock tight stopped the bolts from coming loose. Have never had any issues with my front or rear SB system once all the shortcomings and weak parts were replaced. Got just over 50,000 miles on the RV.

[Kayakist]

Just received the Ford letter stating parts are available and to contact my dealer to schedule the work.

[DaFish]

Originally Posted by kandcbend

On our 2021 Tiffin Open Road 34PA with 7.3L V-8, a loose bracket with slipping bushing on the sway bar was found while at Henderson's Line-Up in Grants Pass OR. They recommended a kit and I had it installed on ours. In our case, the nuts that the bracket bolts screw into were welded on by Ford; the welds on one of the nuts broke allowing the nut, bracket, and bushing to slip around. Ours is built on a 26,000 lb. 2020 year F53 chassis and had ~9,000 miles on it when the failure was discovered.

https://supersteerparts.com/products...-4139-131.html

I totally agree with this replacement - while the bolts were tight, the original bushings in ours were pushed out the sides of the clamp. We replaced with the Supersteer parts, which results in huge improvement and not having to worry about Ford parts scattered on the highway.

[boiler01]

Just had the recall completed on my '21 18k chassis a couple of weeks ago. Drive it 600 miles and so far seems ok (checked before and after I arrived as my originals came off twice in the first 750 miles of driving before I added blue loctite to the threads). Considering adding the loctite again as the Ford dealership did not when they replaced everything.

[Wacdmc]

Originally Posted by boiler01

Just had the recall completed on my '21 18k chassis a couple of weeks ago. Drive it 600 miles and so far seems ok (checked before and after I arrived as my originals came off twice in the first 750 miles of driving before I added blue loctite to the threads). Considering adding the loctite again as the Ford dealership did not when they replaced everything.

What actually came off with your originals so I know what to look for?

Thanks!

[Hermes2]

Like others, I received the recall letter from Ford last week. On a whim I called the local dealer this week (Peach State Ford Trucks) and took it in the same day. It was ready to go the next day much to my surprise. Can't beat that. According to the service tech, the bolts on my brackets were good, as were the brackets, so only the bolts and nuts were replaced and torqued to 190 ft/lbs.

[TeJay]

My goodness. So starting in 1999 and through 2021 FORD in ALL of their technical publications listed a torque of 66 FT/LBS for ALL sway bar bolts. Now 2023 it's 190 FT/LBS!!!! Lets hope they increased the class of the bolts and nuts????

My! MY! Wonders never cease.

[Tegu]

Saying from the old days. FixOrRepairDaily. Seems to fit.

[mack73]

Originally Posted by TeJay

My goodness. So starting in 1999 and through 2021 FORD in ALL of their technical publications listed a torque of 66 FT/LBS for ALL sway bar bolts. Now 2023 it's 190 FT/LBS!!!! Lets hope they increased the class of the bolts and nuts????

My! MY! Wonders never cease.

The new 2" sway bars require a much much bigger bracket and bolts. So yeah, they can easily take the 190 ft/lbs as they are now a massive M16 bolt