Checking wet bolts

[twindman]

I had wet bolts installed many years ago. I think they are Dexter. Anyway, how do you people tell when the bushings are bad. I don't really want to remove all of them to see and I usually have the dealer grease them when greasing bearings.
Thanks for any info.

[MandK]

I just take them apart and check them. It’s been MY experience that the spring eye bushings go first. This pic shows the last time I checked. About 15k miles on the bushings, greased about twice as often as recommended. Notice the bushing in the spring, junk. Bushing in the equalizer, like new. YMMV. Someone here said theirs lasted something like 40k miles but they grease them every time they move the trailer.

[Daryles]

The only way to tell if the bushings are bad is to pull the bolt, drop the leaf spring and look at them.
I bought a full kit at the rally and just got done doing all of mine. Mark the head of the bolt with a line in the direction of the grease eye on the shank. Install the bolt with the eye at 9 o'clock or 3 o'clock so they take grease with weight on wheels.

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by Daryles

The only way to tell if the bushings are bad is to pull the bolt, drop the leaf spring and look at them.
I bought a full kit at the rally and just got done doing all of mine. Mark the head of the bolt with a line in the direction of the grease eye on the shank. Install the bolt with the eye at 9 o'clock or 3 o'clock so they take grease with weight on wheels.

Extremely important! The timing of the bolt will determine whether or not it will take grease with pressure on it. Learned the hard way

[Montana Man]

You must pull the bolts and look at the bushings. Or what’s left of them. They don’t last long especially the very front and rear ends.

[LeftOverParts]

I’m in the middle of replacing the Road Armor equalizers and found the bushing in the spring eyes mostly worn away. (Re the RA, note the cracked and displaced rubber cushions plus the center bushing was worn down too).

The wet bolts in the spring eyes had worn areas that you could feel a lip with finger nails so replaced those too. I suspect the spring was riding the bolt where the bushing was completely wore away.

[3 fingers]

Originally Posted by twindman

I had wet bolts installed many years ago. I think they are Dexter. Anyway, how do you people tell when the bushings are bad. I don't really want to remove all of them to see and I usually have the dealer grease them when greasing bearings.
Thanks for any info.

Chances if your only greasing once a year they are long worn out. I grease mine after every trip and they wear pretty thin. but grease is better than no grease.

[scottz]

Just completed running gear service. Replaced the spring bushings and serviced wet bolts. The equalizer bushings were ok, but the spring bushings were trash; I don’t think I have been greasing them often enough. However, all of the wear was on the bottom of the bushing so grease may not have made it there even with the grease hole being clocked at 3 or 9 o’clock. In the future, I will take the weight off the tires when greasing the wet bolts, and grease more often.

I also packed the wheel bearings and replaced the brake pads. The spring bushings had 35k miles, brake pads 47k miles. I pack the bearings every 10k miles; they looked like new.

[MaxwellD]

Originally Posted by scottz

Just completed running gear service. Replaced the spring bushings and serviced wet bolts. The equalizer bushings were ok, but the spring bushings were trash; I don’t think I have been greasing them often enough. However, all of the wear was on the bottom of the bushing so grease may not have made it there even with the grease hole being clocked at 3 or 9 o’clock. In the future, I will take the weight off the tires when greasing the wet bolts, and grease more often.

I also packed the wheel bearings and replaced the brake pads. The spring bushings had 35k miles, brake pads 47k miles. I pack the bearings every 10k miles; they looked like new.

How critical are worn bushings? This is a very informative post - I never knew this was an issue. I have been intimidated by leaf spring maintenance after flipping a hanger or two and witnessing the force behind a loaded spring so, does anyone have pointers on how to do this safely? Are the bushings press-fit? Just bang them in? Information please?
Thank you.

[Baldicon]

I recently installed X-brace to center hangers and found the bushing that supports the equalizer to be pretty much gone.

[Baldicon]

Originally Posted by LeftOverParts

I’m in the middle of replacing the Road Armor equalizers and found the bushing in the spring eyes mostly worn away. (Re the RA, note the cracked and displaced rubber cushions plus the center bushing was worn down too).

The wet bolts in the spring eyes had worn areas that you could feel a lip with finger nails so replaced those too. I suspect the spring was riding the bolt where the bushing was completely wore away.

Just curious, what are you replacing with? I've been looking at the Roadmaster slipper spring system with shock absorbers.

[Daryles]

Originally Posted by MaxwellD

How critical are worn bushings? This is a very informative post - I never knew this was an issue. I have been intimidated by leaf spring maintenance after flipping a hanger or two and witnessing the force behind a loaded spring so, does anyone have pointers on how to do this safely? Are the bushings press-fit? Just bang them in? Information please?
Thank you.

YouTube has some good videos.
Etrailer and Dexter have videos.
I just did all of ours. I used the hydraulic system to raise the rig then put blocks under the frame for safety.
I put a floor jack under the axle to support the weight. You can tell by watching the eye of the leaf spring if the weight is off. If you are just doing the bushings, do one at a time.

In my case I took the axles completely off (took coroplast off, did welding work (cross frame support repairs), seal up ALL air gaps and holes through the frame, added extra insulation around the frame and across the entire bottom.
I replaced the leaf springs. The eyes were slightly too small for the bushings to slide through. I had to use a grinding stone on a drill to open up the eyes enough for the new bushings to slide in.
DONT BEAT THEM IN. They will compress and the bolts won't go through. Tried it. Had to use a hack saw blade to cut out that bushing and do it correctly.
To put the axles back up, I tilted the spring up under the hanger then jacked it up (4") until the spring was under the hanger. Then did the same to the opposite side so the axle was level. Then jiggeled and jacked it up until I got the bolt through the hole (grease eye at 9 o'clock) and the nut on it.
Repeat on both axles.
Once one side of each axle is on I used two ratchet straps on each side of the axle and tightened them up. This brings the axles together and let's you put the Equalizer and Shackle bolts in.
When you tighten the bolts, they have splines on the shank. Put a socket over the grease zirc and tap on the head of the bolt as you tighten the nut. This will drive the bolt flush with the metal hanger.
DO NOT TIGHTEN THE HEAD. It has splines. Only tighten the nut.

Torque EVERYTHING.
Torque values are in the Dexter Axle Service Manual in the files section.

[LeftOverParts]

I too lifted the trailer with the leveling system in manual mode. Did one side at a time.

Lifted the trailer just high enough to take the wheels off, then lowered enough to get the opposite wheels to just touch the ground. Used a floor jack to lift the axle to get a jack stand under them and the shackles in an upward V position. This kept the axles from moving to change the equalizer and related spring bushings. The shackles pretty much came straight out and went in same except for some slight taping with a wood block and mallet. (Also had Rachet straps, and an assortment of blocks, pry bar, and pipe in case I needed to align the parts to put the wet bolts back in.).

For the bushings, cleaned the spring hole and applied a thin film of grease on the bushing and eye. To avoid deforming any bushings that needed light tapping to insert, I ground down the knurling of an old wet bolt so I could start the bushing, insert the bolt, and tap on the bolt head.

The spring eyes on the front and rear hanger were a little more challenging. The step bolts can be a pain to align in the back hanger hole. Using the floor jack, dropped the spring just enough to keep it in the hanger to change the bushing. To reassemble, it was a little fiddly to use the floor jack to align the front hole and used a large Phillips since it had a round shaft and/or a non-stepped shackle bolt to align the back hole. With the back hole aligned, pushed the stepped wet bolt through.

I found a couple of elongated holes in the hangers which I will post about separately to get advice on what to do.

[scottz]

Originally Posted by MaxwellD

How critical are worn bushings? This is a very informative post - I never knew this was an issue. I have been intimidated by leaf spring maintenance after flipping a hanger or two and witnessing the force behind a loaded spring so, does anyone have pointers on how to do this safely? Are the bushings press-fit? Just bang them in? Information please?
Thank you.

Not much to add beyond what has been said. I needed a second bottle jack on re-assembly of the front & rear bushings. My equalizers moved and the holes did not line up. The second jack under the equalizer joint allowed me to get everything lined up. Do one at a time so stuff does not get too cattywampus. (My wife says that is not a word, but it's in my vocabulary)

Five of the old bushings came out with a light tap from a punch. Two required heat and more hammer. One was totally missing; either it ground itself into small bits or the spring shop that replaced my springs forgot to put one in. All of my new bushings went in without any effort; no pressing or banging.

How critical? Nobody's going to die. I suspect that without a bushing the spring eye and wet bolt will eventually wear out. Probably make a lot of noise.

It is not a terrible job, but not one I would want to do every day. I plan to grease the wet bolts frequently (every trip or so) but still not convinced grease is getting to where it is needed. The only way to be sure would be to pull the wet bolt and grease it manually. I'll sell this thing before I do that.

Safety first; after you get the rig lifted with the level up, use jack stands and cribbing as a safety.

[Mikendebbie]

Originally Posted by MaxwellD

How critical are worn bushings? This is a very informative post - I never knew this was an issue. I have been intimidated by leaf spring maintenance after flipping a hanger or two and witnessing the force behind a loaded spring so, does anyone have pointers on how to do this safely? Are the bushings press-fit? Just bang them in? Information please?
Thank you.

This work intimidates me also…Maxwell - come to Granger and practice on mine…then yours will be simple.

[Baldicon]

Originally Posted by scottz

Not much to add beyond what has been said. I needed a second bottle jack on re-assembly of the front & rear bushings. My equalizers moved and the holes did not line up. The second jack under the equalizer joint allowed me to get everything lined up. Do one at a time so stuff does not get too cattywampus. (My wife says that is not a word, but it's in my vocabulary)

Five of the old bushings came out with a light tap from a punch. Two required heat and more hammer. One was totally missing; either it ground itself into small bits or the spring shop that replaced my springs forgot to put one in. All of my new bushings went in without any effort; no pressing or banging.

How critical? Nobody's going to die. I suspect that without a bushing the spring eye and wet bolt will eventually wear out. Probably make a lot of noise.

It is not a terrible job, but not one I would want to do every day. I plan to grease the wet bolts frequently (every trip or so) but still not convinced grease is getting to where it is needed. The only way to be sure would be to pull the wet bolt and grease it manually. I'll sell this thing before I do that.

Safety first; after you get the rig lifted with the level up, use jack stands and cribbing as a safety.

Ratchet strap between the axles helps hold them in place.