Bad battery?

[dubby]

Oh yeah, while I was under there I saw another issue that needs attending. The radius arm bushings are shot and one has a huge crack and missing about 1/2" of rubber.


A couple years back I had a buddy with a 2wd F150 that let the problem go, and ended up losing his entire front driver-side suspension when the bracket that holds the arm failed. I went ahead and picked up the bushings to renew both sides, but that'll be later this week when I have more energy.

[Bolt]

I just did radius arm busings on my F350 last week, wasn't too bad, but I did it on the lift. While you are at it you probably need to do the I beam pivot bushings as well, they were pretty wallerd out too. Fighthing the bolts is the hardest part. Use a come-along to pull the radius arms out of socket to pop new rubbers on them, then come-along it back into place. 2 come-alongs would make it go easier, at times you need one to go side to side and the other front to back.

[monckywrench]

I just drop the I-beams and do all the bushings at once.
I use either Performance Suspension or Prothane urethane bushings, and slather everything with anti-seize to reduce corrosion and make the install easy. Old rubber bushings are easy to melt/burn out with a torch (taking proper safety precautions).

[Bolt]

I had to use the sawzall to cut one of the steel bushing surrounds to get it to loosen up enough to come out. Had to use a cut of disk to cut one of the I beam bolts on both sides of the bushing as it was seized into the bushing.

I just used parts store rubber, Auto Extra, should last longer than the truck will, it's not a exactly a performance machine....

[dubby]

yeah, I bought the $10/side set of rubbers. I'm going for relaxed and comfy instead of the bumpy harsh ride of polys. With a lifetime warranty the work part isn't too bad.

Came with all the spacers and washers. Same kit from LMC was going to be $60

[Jim-TX]

Originally Posted by dubby

Autozone wasn't so bad, just told them that the battery was leaking all over my truck and the swapped it out without even testing it.

It wasn't the first one they've had returned I'll bet. They probably have a deal with their supplier to get credit for any returns so it's not that big of a deal to Autozone to do it.

I had a guy in the battery business tell me one time how many companies make batteries in the US. I don't remember the exact number (maybe 4) but it's very few. They just market them under dozens of brand names.

[alchemist]

I believe there are only two battery manufactures in the U.S. one of them is johnson controls and the other i can't remember. I just have two points to add. the bolt on battery terminals are only meant as a temporary repair. and once a battery that is not a deep cycle gets run all the way down it, it may work for a while or it may not but it needs to be replaced if you need to depend on it.

[Walker]

In the future pop the cap on top of the battery, put a tablespoon of baking soda into one cell, rinse off, and replace cap. Return to store with complaint that it won't hold a charge.

[tnmike]

You can get crimp connectors at NAPA for post type batteries. I noticed that HF has a crimping tool that should work great for this. I hate the bolt up type. They never last.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=66396


I just found out that this tool is an internet only item

[Paychk]

Originally Posted by alchemist

I believe there are only two battery manufactures in the U.S. one of them is johnson controls and the other i can't remember. I just have two points to add. the bolt on battery terminals are only meant as a temporary repair. and once a battery that is not a deep cycle gets run all the way down it, it may work for a while or it may not but it needs to be replaced if you need to depend on it.

Deka is the other