Yes, that's what dsertdog56 says anyway. I found some bushings on Advanced auto's website for about $20, so I think I'm just gonna get a set of those.

So is this busing gonna need to be replaced every 10xxx miles? I'm not that hard on my truck, but I'm not exactly nice to it either. What would cause the bushing to die this fast?

 

Bushings need to be greased regularly to keep them soft and flexible, other wise they dry out and crumble and will cause your problem. Axle grease does nicely

 

Your bushing has a steel sleeve in it that the mounting bolt goes through. If the bolt is not torqued to spec (130 ft lbs) the motion of the bolt against the sleeve as the axle moves will erode either the bushing sleeve, bolt, or both. That's one scenario.
The second is that the bolt and sleeve held, but the bushing was not molded properly and simply self destructed. Not the mostl likely, but still possible.
A third is that the bolt hole is eroded and egg shaped. I'll be interested to see what you find.

You'll have to remove the bolt, bar and check it out.

Its a bit unusual to read that this bushing died so quickly. My track bar has about 7 years and a fair amount of miles on it, the bushing is cracked but still stable.
If you buy a Urethane replacement you'll want to grease the shyte out of it when you install it.

Burnsville Minnesota...I've been by there!

 

+1 on the bushing. Go with the high end bushings too, don't want to skimp on a part that is involved in 100% of the trucks movement.

 

I pulled the bolt out right after I took the vid, but I did not remove the bar. The bolt looked good, as did the hole. I think I found some pieces of the bushing floating around in there, but it might have just been dirt/rust too.

Part of the problem may be that for the first 2 months that this track bar was in, the frame end wasn't seated properly so it was putting extra stress on the axle end. Every time I turn the wheel sharply I could hear and feel a loud clunk as the track bar shifted. That's my guess anyway.

Any recommendations on a good brand of bushing?

 

Oem's

 

great info guys.. I'm looking into the cost of doing this as well... I found a moog track bar on rockauto.com for $163.89 and the bushing for $14.42 if that helps anyone...

I think this springs tax return is going to spent on rebuilding the front steering linkage (TRE's and Track Bar), New oil pan/gasket.. and a new tranny pan/filter/gasket/fluid and new val. cov. gaskets.. so far I have $621.25 in parts in my shopping cart.. plus another $100 in fluids I would think

on a side note.. I talked with a tranny guy tonight about doing a back flush.. anyone ever do one of these? He said it also flushes out the torque convertor nd they use 24qts. to flush the whole system... souned a bit strange to me.

 

For a stock replacement, I would suggest the Moog unit. From what I remember, they may have a lifetime warranty... not that that really means anything.

As far as flushing the tranny, yeah, just draining the pan only gets 7 quarts or so out, the rest stays in the torque converter. The only way to get it out is to flush it.

 

Oh yeah, and our trucks no doubt have a track bar issue, but I will say my truck is in the mid 160k mile range and still has the original unit installed which still happens to be in good shape (no play anyway). And all those miles have been with 3" of suspension lift with no track bar lowering bracket. It may just be a fluke though.

 

thanks for the info.. do you think I should get a flush or do it the old fashion way? I need to replace the gasket soon because it's starting to leak a little... maybe I'll get the flush.. then drop the pan and replace the filter and gasket?