Trailing Arms, oh what a pain and an understatement

 

Jeep Patriot Trailing Arm Bushing Replacement

It's been going on for over 3 years hearing the squeaking and at 110K miles, like anything else in the rear suspension, it was time to fix it.  The noise was from the lower rear of the body like old timbers in an old wooding bridge, creaking and groaning.  Every uneven rut or a speed bump at low speed, the creaking would reverberate.  

 

The Jeep Patriot has trailing arms, part of the rear suspension and is part of how a vehicle flexes during bumps and turns.  The cause of all that racket was the bushings, the item that isolates the shock and vibrations from the road to the body.  It was now one of the last things on my list of major replacements for the year, barring any sudden discoveries.  

I did embarking on this repair with some research before starting.  It is a good idea to know what to expect and to plan out the tools I'll need.  However, from only one video and a few user group mentions on the subject, it was shaping to be a project I'll be mostly doing in the dark as for as details.  

The video I found was helpful to a point, however, inconsistencies made it more a general reference or outline than an instructional.  For example, it was not mentioned about the needed 15mm socket to remove the bolts that hold up the trailing arm, the brake line brackets are also an issue and there was no mention of the stabilizing rods being part of the challenge of loosening the arms.  The video gives mentions of sockets, ball-joint tubes kits, pry bar, reciprocating saw, block of wood and jacks, but I would find that this list was overly simplistic.  The actual task and the problems encountered will required many times the tools to solve the stumbled upon problems.  

Why am I doing it this way?

It might be pointed out that I should just change the entire trailing arm.  I'm sure most mechanic would argue it as the right way to deal with this.  However, I didn't want to detach the upper and lower control arms, the ABS sensor, the calipers, the hub assembly and axle, the backing plate, the e-brake assembly, the camber links and also requiring a rear alignment job when I'm done.  Seemed quicker just to work on the trailing arm bushings by themselves.

The task summary was as follows: 

On the driver's side, watch out for the fuel connection, fuel tank, e-brake and soft hydraulic hose as well as the bracket with connection.  On the passenger's side, was everything, but not fuel connection.  A each items should be managed or dealt with first before allowing the trailing arm to move down.  It is very helpful to have a second jack was needed to pivot the arm down to allow for clearance to work without the fuel tank getting the way.  Cut a notch in the old bushings, knock them out with a hammer and use the ball-joint press to install the new bushings.

My actual start went this way. 

 The sided I started on was the left side and first the e-brake cable on its bracket was to be undone from near the trailing arm bolts, after cleaning off the rust, I used a 13mm socket to remove it.  After removing the 13mm bolt, it was simple to unhook it from the bracket and moved is aside.  The fuel connection might have been disconnected and moved, but I didn't want to fuss with fuel and chose to guard the path of the trailing arm with a pry bar later.  However, the brake line must be freed from its bracket or the drop of the trailing arm will strain the line.  The brake line connection was held by a flange and secured with a 8mm bolt that is held from behind by a captive nut and I didn't see that at first due to the rust and almost ripped the entire bracket off with the impact gun.  I thankfully stopped in time...I hope.  Fiddling with the pivoting and gain access to the bushing by placing a bottle jack in the available corner of the hub assembly.  Then I marked the positions of the flange's plane in relation to the trailing arm as well the depth of the seated old bushing.  These measurements are the guide for the installation of the new bushing.

There is not a good way to describe this part:

Finding the proper angles and pivots points are the next thing.  The bushing was held in place with two 15mm bolts.  If you unbolt before lifting, the movement of the tailing arm may be managed.  However, the trick of the arm will want to move inwards thanks to the little camber link and bring the arms towards the fuel tank.  If I thought of disconnecting the links from the trailing arm, then the next procedure might have been less a hassle.  I didn't attempt to remove them and maybe I should have.  The decision to proceed without removing the camber connections and save me from needing an alignment job later but meant a dance of the little bottle jack on the hub assembly bracket to finesse the flex of the arm to cause the bushing end to pivot down.  At a certain amount of lifting as you near the position equal to the normal height when the vehicle is on the ground, the bracket is able to pivot further downward.  When the bushing could drop low enough and I could reach with a saw, I stopped pumping the little jack and wedged a block of wood between the arm and the body being careful not to damage the brake line.

The recommended removal of the old bushing was to cut it and this is due to the gas tank's proximity making the ball-joint press not able to fit in the removal position.  However, one cut is not enough and depending on how much rust the need to compress the protruding end or outboard side of the bushing, means that multiple cuts are needed to clear the seated diameter of the bushing.  It is a good idea to use a wire wheel to remove any rust on it prior to removal of the bushing.  If you cut away the rubber core of the bushing, this would make it easier to see and allow careful cutting of the bushing cup.  The idea was not to damage the trailing arm itself.  In my first attempt I got very close to bottom of the cup and used a hand saw for a few more strokes.  It would be thin enough I could simply break the metal.  I could observe that the cut compressed closed when I started to hammer on the rim of the bushing cup. So the more cuts the greater the reduction in the diameter.  Each time the feathered line of the blade's path starts to disappears from view, I would stop and check the depth with a fine point tool and hand saw the rest of the way.  Leaving a thin metal kerf with the few careful strokes, gives a margin of error.  When I had four cuts, I started to hammer on them to drive the cup wall inward towards the center at first and then the rim of the bushing to drive it inboard.  Two dozen good whacks later, the bushing shot out of the trailing arm.

It is never easy

By the end of the single side, being the left, I amassed a very large pile additional needed tools to tackle the issues I had run into.  So far, I mentioned the hand saw.  A handy item that takes the saw blades as the reciprocating saw.  Painter's tape to mark with a marker the location of the flange angle.  Drift punch for flattening the cuts as they bulge.  Channel lock wrench to help rock the cup.  Wire wheel and drill driver for cleaning up the mounting surface.  Pry bars for the few leveraging points needed to keep the trailing arm in position.  Clamps to holt the wood blocks in place while hammering the bushing. The one or two wrench sizes grew to my entire tool chest of sockets and box end wrenches.  Extra light was needed and the addition of a zip-tie to reduce the slop of the push tube on the holder.    

The video also demonstrated the installation of the new bushing with a standard ball-joint press, however, that was not sufficient and I luckily had the large version of the press.  In the video, the lack of a pushing tube was a bad example of how to install the bushing.  The video shows the guy forcing the bushing without the pusher tube and just utilizing the open tail of the press right up against the bushing.  During my attempt, I watched the bushing center distort out of the assembly, it was clear that I required the pusher tube or risk damaging the bushing.   However, that was another problem to solve.  Due to the poor fit of the tube to the holder, I caused the bushing to go in very slanted and at the risk of having to cut it out.  I stopped and was able to back it out with some hit with a hammer.  

The Problems with most Ball Joint Press Kits and the Bushing

This is based on my OTC ball-joint kit

Although I decided on using the pusher tube arrangement, I discovered how crude the fit between the holder and tube was and it hindering the alignment.  

The Left Side:

In my first attempt on the left side trailing arm, I managed to get the parts near poised enough to work and push straight.  However, that required a lot of tape to hold them together in groups.  I used painter's tape and put the pusher tube holder and then all of that to the end of the bushing.  

The Right Side:

On this side, things were not staying aligned. The holder kept slipping and the pusher tube didn't stay perched on the bushing to drive it correctly towards the receiving tube.  This meant I could not turn the  press bolt tight enough to lock things straight.  It was a challenge to one hand holding the press and tubes with one hand while trying to spin it tight.  A couple of tries with the pusher tube tilted and could not stay on the holder even with tape.  The tube to the bushing  fit was poor (illustration shows the lack of contact space and the tenuous positions).  

The Problem:

The rim of the bushing is about 3.125 inches in diameter (O.D.) and a slight more than a quarter inch thick rim, however, the tube was a maximum of 2.755 inches and could only perch on the tip of the inside rim.  The holder had stepped shoulders and the closest one didn't properly line up with the tube I selected for the pushing either, as illustrated above.  All these misalignments made for a good many failed attempts installing.  Only 3/16 of an inch shoulder and the tube had only a slight 1/16 of an inch to perch on the holder's shoulder with plenty of room to fall off.  I tried to first solved this by fashioning a spacer from a piece of zip-tie fitted to the inside of the tube and taped down to hold it in position and that did worked a bit.

Although the left side was just stable enough to install and only a few tries to then slide into place, the trial and error attempts on the left side would scar the edges of the tube and holder.  The right side could not stay align at all, slipping out due to the rounded edges, each time everything went crooked or wonky would add more rounded edges and scars.  After having the dozed attempts on the right side and  failing, I returned to an idea I came up with prior to doing all this.   When I first tested the tubes fit against the bushings to find the needed tubes from the kit,  I quickly discovered the poor fit issue.  I had imagined an intermediate plate to correct the poor fit between the two surfaces of the bushing and tube.  A simple horseshoe plate to allow the to surfaces to stay aligned during the pressing.  So I stopped trying to make the tube seat on the edge of the bushing and went into action to come back after a few minutes with a very nasty piece of metal saw work, ugly filing job as well some viscous licks with the angle grinder.  I made something that worked like the above image, however, was very ugly. 

Another difficulty was the receiving tube, it was prepared prior to the attempt when I realized it isn't allowing the new bushing to fit inside it.  A tube has an inside diameter of 2.756 inch with a scallop opened side.  The end of the bushing that should push through the trailing arm and then the receiving tube is about 2.762 inches in diameter.  The receiving tube was too narrow for the bushing to fit inside.  To solved this, I had my drum sanding attachment and 80 grit sanding tubes mounted on my drill press.  Setting the platform to limit my sanding to only 2/5th depth of the opening of the scalloped side.  I ground out enough to give the bushing a slightly snug, but easy to slide in and out fit.

With the modified receiving tube, I later pushed it on to the old bushing to mark the depth needed with I mount the new bushing.  The correct depth as the original was important to avoid needed an alignment of the rear tracking when all is done.  The old and new bushings were the same cup heights and that meant I could easily duplicate the seating of the new bushing later.

When all the loosening and dropping of the trailing arm was accomplished.  The clearing of these obstructions allowed me to position the large press and the modified pusher tube with holder and the modified receiving tube with holder around the bushing.  A small shot of WD-40 to help things along and started cranking on the press.  Finally and slowly I made steady progress.  The bushing made its way to the tape mark on the scalloped opening of the receiving tube.  The left side done and it took only 4 hours of fussing and making mistakes and fishing more tools.  The right side took 3 hours of fussing and making the shim that I should have had for the left side.

The instructions should be as follows:

• Jack Jeep up and secondary jack point and not at pinch weld.  You will need the room to work.  
• I use a AGM Jack Rod to add safety.  
• Have a jack stand, just in case, under the sub-frame.  
• Have handy another hydraulic jack for adjusting the trailing arm position to work.  
• Tire off.  
• Free the e-brake bracket via the 15mm bolt.  
• Fee the brake line off of its bracket via the 8mm bolt and not the other side.
• Free the two 16mm bolts holding the trailing arm.  
• Guide the trailing arm down to avoid the fuel connector if you are on the left side.  If you remove the connection with the trailing arm control arm, this would make things easier, however, the alignment cam should be preserved.  
• Make marks to help align the degree of the level of the bushing flanges to the trailing arm as the alignment is not match horizontal to the arm, but tilted.
• When the trailing arm is cleared and in a safe position to work, start cutting the old bushing. 
• Taking brief cuts to not cut past the bushing housing and into the trailing arm.  The cuts remove the locking tension of the bushing housing to the trailing arm.  It should be three or more cuts to make it loose enough to knock out with a hammer.
• Need is the larger version of the "ball joint" press.  The 2.75" I.D. receiving tube and the 2.75 O.D. pushing tube.  Note: the bushing is about 2.762" O.D. at the point of the seating.  My only examples of this tube was at 2.74" and 2.758".  I took the 2.74" and used a sanding drum in a drill press to grind away enough clearance to allow the bushing to easily slide into the tube at the full seated depth
• Wire brush slightly the first third of the new bushing to allow for snug seating of it to the trailing arm and align to marks for the angle it should be mounted. Tap in with hammer.
• Tape together the needed tubes and shimming the tubes to fit the holders as centered as possible.
• The press, tubes and bushing on the trailing arm.  A small squirt of oil will help too.
• Start cranking on the press until the depth mark is reached.
• The return of the two 15mm bolts are best replaced by remounting the tire and lowering it back to normal to make the alignment and adjusting the bolts easier.
• The remaining bolts for the brake line and e-brake can be down while on the ground.  However, I lifted back up and removed the tire to better see the installation.

That is it and I hope it worked.

Jeep Patriot 2.4L Intake with a P2007 problems and how it was going

Image of intake manifold removed and
just the AC condenser remaining until delivery of the new radiator

After dealing with that bit of a detour working on the radiator, that is now installed.  I brought the intake manifold out from storage and did my check through.  It has been over a month since it was removed and cleaned and lubed up lightly in key areas.  I've not found much details on the bits inside and if they should be lubed.  

I had cleaned all carbon residue and polished off any bad scrub marks left by my plastic scraper.  The rubber parts still looked good and the flapper part was scrub as much as possible.  The test was to see if at any point the slot key that operated the flapper would bind on any part of the motion from up to down.  There was only 15 to 20 degrees of movement, but the handful of accounts as to what causes the error code seems to say that the ECM must really be sensitive to the time and volts to move the flapper into position when needed.  

The motor part was brought into position and the two 10mm and one 8mm screws were put back on.  Checking were all my wires were and then I lowered the intake manifold into position while noting the position of the throttle body relative to the bracket that will be attached later.  I had removed the cam sensor to allow for that little extra space to insert the intake manifold into position on the stud nearby.  Lined it up on both studs to and hand spun on the nuts to hold things up.  The passenger side nut was a tiny pain to position and spin on due to needed an off from straight angle to position it.  I used a finger cot stretch on to the socket to help hold the nut and wished I had a fancy magnetic holder.  The bolts were mostly easy.  The mixed information was giving, around 21-28 inch pounds to secure everything?  I didn't remember having to struggle with the removal, so 28-30 is good enough.  All wires and plug were put back and the battery tray and battery.  I glugged coolant in the day before for the other project and now I moved on to filling the new radiator and testing the idle for any errors.  The procedure to purge bubbles means bringing the engine temp up to normal running.  I figure this was a good start to testing the intake manifold as well.  

Jeep Patriot 2015 2.4L and an All Aluminum Radiator

I was busy dealing with a P2007 code.  After removing the intake manifold, I happen to look down at the ground where I just come up from to pull the connector for the throttle body and noticed a puddle.  Following the trail of fluid, I ended up seeing damp spot on the radiator.  "Oh great!"... I have another thing to deal with.  Was this the time for an "all aluminum radiator?  Also, have you also noticed a shortage of reviews for this subject?

This is a sort of typical all-aluminum radiator that I purchased off the bay

Here is my review and I call it...

My Big Mistake and Discoveries along the way

(Warning!  I'm a DIYer and don't claim to have all the answers to whet is wrong, I'm also long winded with details of my journey to install this thing)

To start off, I understood that a more popular use of such radiators would be in a special purpose application... racing and high demand off-road use... towing too.  

Of course I've since discovered it was a waste of time and money... to the tune of $185ish delivered.  Did I need this fancy radiator?  Well, no.  Yet it was more the idea it would be great to not have to think about a radiator for at least the next six years and more than likely it would out live the vehicle and or would be repairable...as the hype seemed to be.

When the "All Aluminum Radiator" arrived, it looked hefty!  That's when I should have notice there was going to be a problem.  From pictures on the bay and after comparing it to the removed original radiator, I then should have noticed that there was very much a size difference of the two radiators.

At first look, there just wasn't much room to sandwich the radiator between the fan and the AC condenser. When you include the lower support and and upper bracket, things just get more tight looking.

If you would like to read the details of my preparations for separating the radiator from the fan and condenser, I've include that stuff separately at the end.  Up here was more the story of the radiator.  

A quick clarification first... From here on,  All Aluminum Radiator (aluminum tank radiator) from here on I'll refer to as the AA-R; Plastic Radiator (Plastic tank radiator or standard radiator) I'll simply say P-R. 

Image 1 - Orange line of fan flange.
Green 

The Review or when things went wrong.

The newly arrived AA-R compared to the P-R can be summed up as 28mm to 32mm extra girth.  What I mean is that the tank portion from front to back.  Although the AA-R included the same number of mounting lugs for the AC condenser as the original or the amount I needed.  

The first thing that indicated something wrong was my factory fan not being able to fit.  The fan has an overhang to its flange and this made the width of the lug very critical.  I should note the flanges on the fan are L-hook shaped (see image 1) and fan flange must rest across the bed inside of the AA-R's hook and no latch found compared to an original P-R types (image 5B at the bottom).  In the provided image the orange line shows the hook shape and is meant to stabilize the fan.  When I tried to mount the fan to the surface of the AA-R, it didn't fit at all, but that would not be the first problem...as you read on.

 

Image 2 - Orange outline of AA-R Lug and Post
Resting on lug is the block (orange dot) and post is too long
or the block and lines were way too short.

The OEM/factory transmission lines?... could be bent to go around this area towards the forward located condenser.  The best application would be with new hard lines and no refrigerant present in the condenser so as to do some heavy pushing and bending to align things.  My almost ten years old lines and condenser under pressure could not have withstood my bending the automatic transmission lines on the other side.  You could say I was better off emptying the automatic transmission side to do some bending, but I'm not too confident with that unless I had a backup set of lines ready.  It would be a substantial "re-route" of the tubes.  

Image 3 - After cutting the post
the transmission lines are tight against body
and still not fully seated down

I attemped to cut the post down to see if I could make it a more comfortable clearance.  However, all this effort achieved only enough to take some of the pressure off the block.  These hard lines contacted the AA-R body tightly and didn't allow enough clearance to seat the AC condenser as to drop on to the lugs on the front for securing the bolts.  Now the remainder of the tapped post shortened left less room for the would be fan unit flange to fit and more to the point was the final clearance was poor.

The extra thickness of the tanks portion was the chief obstacle for the proper seating of the condenser.  I could maybe custom bent the fresh hard lines to fit the dimensions.  

Out of the box, they just didn't fit.  If this was a quality control issue overall or just my example being flawed?  I'll never know unless I hear from others about this or from the company that sold it to me.  The argument might be that I might have crammed it on with a discharged system, however, the heating of the system might have expanded it?  The fan is plastic and I could have snipped off what didn't fit.  I could have cut down the lugs, but risk breeching the tank.  This would still be proof that this example of an AA-R was not a true direct fit.  If the tanks were just 20% smaller.  I might have had far less issues. As proved by the OE sized radiator part of the story below.

Normal mounting point for block
and awaiting the positioning of a clip to
receive the bolt.

Throwing in the towel

After much measuring, maneuvering and juggling, I had to come to the conclusion it will never fit without a saw and TIG welder and new hard lines.  The pushing, pulling and a mallet was still not able to coax it any closer than 3/4 of an inch or 22mm off from fully seating on the driver side (see image 4).  It was time to put the order in for the replacement unit I first looked at and book marked for purchase.

Image 4 - Passenger side & Driver side AC condenser bolt holes. 

The bitter, better ending... I should have stuck with the normal radiator from the beginning

If you are still reading this... thank you.  You looked into all-aluminum radiators and found this article some how?  I hope any of this helped you.  I took the risk of replacing my radiator myself.  I also refused to get my refrigerant emptied first.  This was my giant detour just to repair a leaky radiator while originally repairing a bad "runner is stuck open" code.  I may someday install the AA-R, but the wife wants the vehicle back on the road soon.

So, out of the abundance radiators in the plastic tank type category of  replacements... and I don't claim to know who's the best or even if I can tell later... I purchased the $74 TYC brand only because it had the highest rate or lowest complaints.  It arrived about two days after giving up on the AA-R installation.  I had fussed with the AA-R to try and fit it for over 3 hours with pushing and pulling and tapping with a mallet and then the newly arrived TYC/ P-R was fitted in about ten minutes as well as sitting on top of the lower supports.  Now I had to put it all back together again... look at the steps below.  It looked very much like the original OE radiator (see image 5). Working backwards in steps, I reassembled the fan, bracket, wires and fasteners as well as mounting the bumper back and wires, lights, then the nose.

Image 5 - TYC next to Mopar

Installation Prep work

This was all the step just to avoid having to empty out the AC R134a refrigerant. 

• Battery and Battery Tray - to give more room to access the hose
• Removed all Torx head screws and the 13mm bolts at ends for the top shroud and remove the under shroud cover via the plastic fasteners.
• Unwire harness around fan, yanking the 'christmas-tree' fasteners with trim tool
• Unwire fan via the two plugs using a small pick or screwdriver to wedge clips open
• Unplugged the fog lights
• Pop out fasteners for wheel well liner as part of nose
• As well remove the other pop fasteners for the bottom cover and 3 - 10mm bolts at front 
• 7mm screws along forward end of wheel well - 4 on each side, but three you can see and 1 is hidden until you peek under the wheel well liner
• Pull the nose out slightly to access the side marker lights to unplug
• Slowly pull forward the nose to clear any fasteners that may be hidden and clearing steel bumper
• Detached the hood release cable - pinch locking collar with needle-nose and then head of cable
• *My only added edge was that I had removed the Intake Manifold prior.  I was originally dealing with a P2004 code when I discovered my radiator was slowly leaking (this is optional), but certainly made fan removal easy.  Yes, skip this.
• Locate the cover pieces on either side - between lights and radiator and remove the "christmas-tree" style fasteners
• Unplug AC temp. sensor
• Carefully unfasten the steering cooler from bumper, if installed (my version was a simple loop of hard line) - secure with long 'chrismas-tree' fasteners for the short version or on hook lug on radiator
• Remove the bumper / 4-14mm bolts on each side and a 10mm bolt for the horn to get to one blocked bolt.  The bumper is held in place by hook lugs. Lift up and away
• Remove the upper radiator bracket / unwire ground wires and pull off hood latch cable head from slot and fastened collar end by pinching ears with needlenose.  2-13mm and 1-10mm on each side.
• Undo the AC condenser bolts in front / 2- 13mm 
• Undo the AC condenser hard line block - the driver side facing firewall 10mm
• Unlatch the fan unit from the radiator / slightly wedge (see image 5B) open and move the fan up a little to clear the latch, then do the same to the other side.  Pull straight up until clearing all lugs

Image 5B - Hooked lug that hold the fan flanges

At this point the radiator and AC condenser were no longer secured to anything.  The AC condenser was still hooked to the lug on the front side of the radiator and the radiator was still sitting on top of the lower bracket.  

I emptied some coolant from the radiator via the drain cock.  It was at the lower end on the passenger side and it didn't open with just a turn.  I found it was more an uncorking action by lifting out and twisting to coax it out.  With the catch basin in position at that point, a glug of about two quarts.

Unhooked hoses from the radiator with the assistance clamp springs tools and as well coaxing off the overflow tube.

Ready a support to help prop up the AC condenser later as I didn't feel right about leaving it dangle on the AC lines. I was minding the AC coolant lines always as I lifted up the AC condenser off the lugs/hooks and at the same time moved the radiator off the support and down towards the driver side to clear the AC hard lines.

Once the old radiator was cleared, either bungie or push a jack stands under the condenser at the thick end of the unit and not on the thinner fins to prop it up.

If your new radiator does not include the rubber bushing to seat it on to the lower support, save the originals for later.

To put it all back together was by working all this backwards for reassembly.  Remember, I removed the steal bumper as well as the nose piece of the body to allow all this work space.

I considered while things were opened and out to clean off ground connectors and maybe swapping out bulbs that are really old now.

AA-R after removed.  A smooshed lug and 
I cut more than 20mm off the post below it.

Another hour and a bit later, it was back to were I was with the original project...installing the cleaned out intake manifold.

The End?