CURING THE INFAMOUS BRONCO LEAN
Drivers side lean or less common, passenger side lean in the front of your Early Bronco is commonly caused when replacing stock or older “stiffer” style front coil springs with the newer soft riding more flexible coil springs. It can also be caused by replacing your c bushings alone and not replacing the springs. This lean can be measured at the bottom edge of the front fenders, bottom edge of front reflectors or any other handy place, making sure any body damage or bad body bushings won’t affect the numbers.
The cure to this problem is as follows:
You must disconnect the entire front axle assembly from the Bronco. Disconnect and remove the coil springs, disconnect the frame to axle brake line and front housing breather line, remove the radius arms from the frame mounts. Remove the rear bushings on the frame end of the arms. With a set of jack stands supporting the axle (under the front hub assembly on either side works good) lower the frame end of the radius arms down so they touch the LEVEL concrete floor. It’s important that the floor surface is a level, flat surface. With a floor jack under the
“pumpkin” or gear housing of the differential, this makes this step very easy. Look very carefully at the ends of the radius arms. Do they BOTH touch the floor at the SAME time? If one arm is touching the floor and the other is not, then this is the most common cause of your lean. You must have both arms parallel to each other. Are the C bushings installed correctly? Remove and check the writing on the inside of the bushings to verify correct installation. This step is critical. If the c bushings were installed wrong, then improper installation could be causing the lean. To correct the lean, you must loosen the 4 bolts that hold the radius arm caps on. Randomly choose one side to start with. By loosening the cap bolts on this side almost all the way out and then tightening them back diagonally or slightly quicker at the top or bottom (try different ways), the c bushing will seat differently You can vary the distance off the floor of the offending arm by 2” or more by proceeding this way. However, sometimes you cannot get the frame end of the arm that you want closer to the floor (more parallel to the other arm), only farther
off the floor!! If this is the case, then you must try to get the arm back as close as parallel to the offending arm and then tighten/torque the arm bolts. Proceed to loosen the cap bolts on the other arm and repeat the steps you’ve already tried on the first arm. It may take 5-6 times on either or both caps before you will get the arms parallel to each other. Keep trying. It’s hit or miss. The bushings are IMO, the main culprit for front end lean when new suspensions are installed and the lean is a new condition. Of course this method or example won’t solve your problem if your springs are bad or you have other front end problems. However, many owners have emailed me saying that this has cured the “infamous front end lean” in their Broncos.
By Brian Cooke, Courtesy of BroncoFix.com