Robottrainer
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
I thought I'd pass along a little wisdom after tackling this horrendous job. My first piece of advice is drop the cradle if you can and do the diff lockouts while you are at it. If you are as dump as me and insist on doing this with the cradle in place then here are some things to know.
All of the youtube videos show them doing the passenger side. While its a PITA, its nothing compared to the drivers side. Both sides are made worse if you have magneride as the wiring harness is right in the way. There is also a tube in the way of the camber nut on the drivers side. The engineers at Ford have a keen expertise of cramming as much crap in as small a space as possible and there is always something in the way of what you want to get at.
Tools:
Extra long 18mm retched style flex wrench. 10mm 3/8 drive hex socket. About a 2ft 3/8 extension. 3/8 swivel. Either a 18mm flare nut crows foot or possibly a 3/8 drive 18mm universal socket.
There is no way to get a torque wrench or wretched handle for that matter on the drivers side nut. The tube is in the way. Use the extra long 18mm Flex head wrench for this. When re-installing you use BMRs class 12 hardware which is a nut and a socket head bolt. There is no flag to stop it from turning while you tighten the bolt. You have to get this tight as now you are squeezing two brackets. The BMR and the OEM. Use the 10mm hex socket on the swivel and then use the two foot extension to get it over top of the exhaust pipe so you can hold the bolt with a ratchet handle. Tight to the German spec. Guttentite.
The vertical bolt is also a challenge. What I found and others found is with the bracket loose, the cam bolt goes right through. When you tighten the vertical bolt (and it is challenging because this is a nyloc nut) it pulls the bracket down and the holes drop lower than the oem slot making it impossible to get the cam bolt through. I found you have to tighten it just enough so you can get the cam bolt through. Once that bolt is tight it takes up the remaining slack in the vertical bolt. With the cam bolt loose and the vertical bolt not all the way tight you will have a little slack to move the bracket in and out so you may need a couple of slight adjustments before tightening the cam bolts all the way. It seems the holes in the BMR bracket are too low on the bracket.
As for tightening the vertical bolt, I used the 18mm crows foot with an extension and a ratched and a short flex 18mm gear wrench. Its tedious. the 18mm universal socket might work but I didnt have one to try.
Once everything is together you may be able to wedge a .650 wide x 1/8' thick x 4" long object just above the cam arm and between the vertical bolt head and oem bracket which may allow you to tighten the vertical nyloc nut the rest of the way. It took me a day and half to do it. The passenger side took me an hour and half.
Enjoy!
All of the youtube videos show them doing the passenger side. While its a PITA, its nothing compared to the drivers side. Both sides are made worse if you have magneride as the wiring harness is right in the way. There is also a tube in the way of the camber nut on the drivers side. The engineers at Ford have a keen expertise of cramming as much crap in as small a space as possible and there is always something in the way of what you want to get at.
Tools:
Extra long 18mm retched style flex wrench. 10mm 3/8 drive hex socket. About a 2ft 3/8 extension. 3/8 swivel. Either a 18mm flare nut crows foot or possibly a 3/8 drive 18mm universal socket.
There is no way to get a torque wrench or wretched handle for that matter on the drivers side nut. The tube is in the way. Use the extra long 18mm Flex head wrench for this. When re-installing you use BMRs class 12 hardware which is a nut and a socket head bolt. There is no flag to stop it from turning while you tighten the bolt. You have to get this tight as now you are squeezing two brackets. The BMR and the OEM. Use the 10mm hex socket on the swivel and then use the two foot extension to get it over top of the exhaust pipe so you can hold the bolt with a ratchet handle. Tight to the German spec. Guttentite.
The vertical bolt is also a challenge. What I found and others found is with the bracket loose, the cam bolt goes right through. When you tighten the vertical bolt (and it is challenging because this is a nyloc nut) it pulls the bracket down and the holes drop lower than the oem slot making it impossible to get the cam bolt through. I found you have to tighten it just enough so you can get the cam bolt through. Once that bolt is tight it takes up the remaining slack in the vertical bolt. With the cam bolt loose and the vertical bolt not all the way tight you will have a little slack to move the bracket in and out so you may need a couple of slight adjustments before tightening the cam bolts all the way. It seems the holes in the BMR bracket are too low on the bracket.
As for tightening the vertical bolt, I used the 18mm crows foot with an extension and a ratched and a short flex 18mm gear wrench. Its tedious. the 18mm universal socket might work but I didnt have one to try.
Once everything is together you may be able to wedge a .650 wide x 1/8' thick x 4" long object just above the cam arm and between the vertical bolt head and oem bracket which may allow you to tighten the vertical nyloc nut the rest of the way. It took me a day and half to do it. The passenger side took me an hour and half.
Enjoy!
Sponsored
