Chassis.....Ford versus Chevy
I was surprised to read in another thread where somebody said the Ford chassis has handling problems on the class C motorhomes. I tried to do a search on this but didn't have any luck, could somebody ...
Forum Discussion
I've been involved in bushing jobs on two older (1980s) E350s. On ours, I changed the two where the inner end of the two half axles meet the front cross member. The pivot points where they "swing." And I also changed the bushings on what I'll call the "radius arms" which lead back from the lower ball joint ends of the half axles to the frame rails. It provided some improvement. I had tried to adjust play out of the 90000-some-mile-old steering box and it leaked after that, so I'd replaced it before the bushing work. First thing I'd ever done to that front end was replace the end link bushings on the OEM sway bar with hard poly bushings from NAPA. And I found it was toe-out, changed to slightly toe-in. Those changes left it driving very well.
The other E350 was a painter's work van. My neighbor was going to put kingpins in it and I asked for a look. There was no rubber left in the swing bushings! He replaced the bushings and took the kingpins back, problem solved.
Over the years, I've noticed that shops and DIY often ignore the bushings. They can wear out, they can get off center, they can go soft and not provide proper control. Unfortunately they can cause as much problem as ball joints. But they're harder to change.
But I haven't heard much about swing axle bushings in any E-Series discussion. I'll add, though, that a shop told me the stretched-frame E-Series is hard on front end parts in general.
The other E350 was a painter's work van. My neighbor was going to put kingpins in it and I asked for a look. There was no rubber left in the swing bushings! He replaced the bushings and took the kingpins back, problem solved.
Over the years, I've noticed that shops and DIY often ignore the bushings. They can wear out, they can get off center, they can go soft and not provide proper control. Unfortunately they can cause as much problem as ball joints. But they're harder to change.
But I haven't heard much about swing axle bushings in any E-Series discussion. I'll add, though, that a shop told me the stretched-frame E-Series is hard on front end parts in general.
