Polyurethane Radiator Support Mounts (Cab Also)

Inspect. Sounds to me like your OEM's have deformed.

 

Shit. I cannot remember which way mine. Ugh. Now I have to go look. Pretty certain I did them the way the instructions said though.

 

Well that's a great idea.....

 

Did anyone ever report the "new" installed height of the OEM rubber isolator part? The Energy Suspension catalog spec gives the sizes of the "firm" and "soft" versions of their universal mounts. The larger size of the 9.4101 (88A durometer) - turns out to be the smaller size of the 9.4102 (70A durometer). Maybe the smaller size of the softer mount would preload down to be a match.

 

Found it! @VolcomTacoma

 

100% spot on. Since my rad support isn't "clapped out", I tried to get the taller bushing in there but realized it wasn't a good idea. I went with the smaller on top, with washer.

If I were to do it again I'd just order the body mount bushing kit and use the one provided.

 

hmmmm that is a possibility.

Not sure how big the hole is in the frame, but for the softer mount the hole in the frame needs to be rather large!

 

^Thats exactly what I did, figured if I'm swapping to poly bushings, why would I leave the rest as rubber that can flex and cause stress on the body when half of it is flexing on the rubber and the other half isn't because poly

 

Well, look what just showed up......

 

I put the Energy Suspension master kit on my '07 and it tightened everything up.
Highly recommended. The cab mounts are fantastic.

 

Any special tools needed?

 

A 4x4 post to place on top of your jack so it will reach high enough to jack the body up off of the frame. Also suggest spraying some penetrant on the steering shaft for a couple days before you do it so the collar will come apart easily.

 

Polyurethane mounts are not solid, they are designed to be stiffer and more resistant to oil and other petroleum products over rubber. There is still give in them. I have seen it many times before when I flex my truck even with the poly mounts the front end is leaned over the other way (or whatever way it leans when flexing). The stock ones are just too soft for their intended design. There is a surprising amount of weight resting on those bushings and when they warp, move, and dance around all over the place even when fully tightened they are going to cause the metal resting on it (more so body than the frame under it) to tweak and warp. Note: The dimples on my frame where the bushings mount after pulling out the stock bushings were slightly tweaked on the passenger side, the issue was largely amplified on the drivers side. Factor in that heavy 50lb stock battery or more when it is changed out to an AGM and you are asking for problems if the mounts are in bad shape already. The under cab mounts are a bit more stout than the radiator support bushings which is why we have more time to change those out before the rad support ones. The factory understands that there will be a lot of weight resting on them, so they should use harder rubber on those.

Also it is worth nothing that after the front end, the actual cab portion of the body is using multi layered sheet metal on it rather than just a single piece riveted together like the rad support and fender wells are. Something to think about I suppose. I don't see much reason to believe that anything on the body will "tweak" by just changing out the front bushings only. While changing all of them out at once is the most ideal, you do have time. After running these for some time and having a chance to see what a change they make especially with the wheeling I like to do, any changes to the body due to singularly running these over all the mounts swapped to poly would had reared it's ugly head long ago.

 

Alright looks like I'm going to have to update this thread. After such a heated debate over which side to use over the other, I just went out to the old bushings and took some measurements and compared them to the new ones, particularly the larger "puck" style bushings on the 94101.G kit, since this is the way I advised members to run it originally to retain close to stock thickness. Please refer to the bolder and underlined text for the consensus.

Measurements are as follows:
- Stock upper radiator support bushing thickness: .9375" or 15/16"
- Polyurethane kit supplied washers are about 1/8" or .125"
- Polyurethane "puck" bushing WITHOUT supplied washer thickness: .750" or 3/4" (WITH washer = 7/8" (.8750")
- Polyurethane smaller bushing WITHOUT supplied washer thickness .4375" or 7/16" (WITH washer = 9/16 .5625")
Footnote: .5625" is not close enough in thickness using OE as the baseline thickness upper bushing to run as the sandwich bushing between the radiator support and the frame.

- Stock overall bushing assembly height off vehicle: 2 1/8" or 2.125"
- Polyurethane overall bushing assembly height off vehicle WITHOUT washers = 1 1/4" or 1.25" (WITH washers = About 1 7⁄16" or 1.4375")

Thoughts on overall height assembly: The overall height is not as important as the actual height of the sandwich bushing between the radiator support and the frame, the lower one is just there as finishing link to the assembly as there is nothing resting both on top and under them. Moral of the story is, use the thicker "puck" bushing on the top with the supplied washers.

 

I just scanned through the entire thread and found all those who previously posted a picture of your bushings fully assembled in the truck. So paging @DrFunker @samiam @Incognito @Crom @BadBrains @MTopp @Bman4X5 all of you need to assemble your bushings thicker bushing side up with the supplied washers in place. Reason why is posted in the first page of the thread on the EDIT and UPDATE section or on page 22 on one of my very last posts.

Incognito, your hood is raised because at some point you either offroaded a little too hard or hit a large speed bump too hard which has deformed the front end a little bit, possibly even your hood. The other suggestion to this which may be a solution for you is that your hood stoppers are maladjusted and need to be lowered some.

Crom, your gap between the bumper and the fenders are correct and fine and they are as they should had been from factory.

@VolcomTacoma @DoorDing I know you've been posting here but I'm not sure that you have done it yet, but to clear this up, running the larger bushing up top is not oversized nor does not create a "body lift." I indefinitely know that after taking measurements (I did when I installed them the first time, but never documented it). It runs the bushing very close to the same size that the stock upper was in the first place.

 

And you're bang on. Front left cab mount was "falling apart"

All fixed up. I hope

Thanks

 

Right where the battery is located. Seems legit.

Seriously. Lol, I'm not being a smartass about it.

 

Thanks Roberto.
I think it has been discussed in here already, but I will ask. What is the easiest way to get more space where that thicker (puck) one will go?
It was a tight fit with the thinner one.
Thanks.

 

Thanks for doing the leg work on this Roberto. I will wait for an answer to DrFunker's query before proceeding.