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1998 IFS question
A question for all and I hope the answer doesn’t cost me a arm and a leg.
My Prevost chassis is now 16 years old and starting to show its age in a few places. One of those areas is the front suspension. I just finished doing a grease job and discovered that just about every rubber boot on the tie rods and several other parts that have a grease fitting are either completley gone or partially gone. Looks like they just got hard and cracked apart from age. I can see the shiny ball joint part that the rubber boot covered and they look fine. No noticable play in any of the parts. So is this a big problem I need to fix or just keep an eye on the parts? Is it worth taken the parts out and replacing the boots? Looking at Cat Base it looks like the rubber boots may be a seperate item that is available. Or shoud I bite the big expensive bullet and take it to Prevost and have the front end rebuilt?
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19 Replies
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Andre trade in buy new coach , just kidding can’t help mine is SFA
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Peter,
I just read your answer to my wife, her answer was:
Adopt us and you buy us a new bus,
OR
she will rent me out to work on your ranch to get her a new bus.
Notice she didn’t volunter to do any work!
Looks like I’ll be keeping this bus!
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Andre,
At 101K mine had to be done, 45000 at Port St Lucie Tire included laser alignment.
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Tom,
Thanks, what parts did that price include?
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Prevost Jacksonville and Ft Worth both said don’t worry about it. Just make sure you grease the joints more often. If not mistaken, Prevost won’t change the boots, just the components that are attached to the boots. Mine are gone too, like almost everyone with a coach of our vintage.
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Andre check with the parts
manufacturer the may give an idea if they produce boots only to sell.The aftermarket people may be able to help as well. -
Mine are not gone Gil I have SFA and 212,000 miles
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Andre,
Bill Jenkins explained that the bushings in the AFS may look very bad but their condition is actually based on if they are secure to the center part. He will be at the rally and he can go into greater detail.
As to the dust boots on parts with grease fittings, as was pointed out, grease routinely and you are likely OK. Some rubber dust boots are expensive to replace.
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Complete A-Arms and tie rod ends, mine were toast Andre…
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Andre,
At about 115,000 miles complete upper and lower A arms at Prevost Jacksonville based on their recommendation after inspection while I was in for service.
Again, about $4500 including alignment.
Might have been wishful thinking, but our Liberty never drove better than after that front end work.
Good luck…
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Same as Paul, mine was at 101k.
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Thanks everyone.
The best I can telll my A arm bushings are OK. The bus drives and handles just fine and tracks straight. Where I have my problem is all the smaller ball joint ends on all the tie rods and connecting rods that turn the front wheels. The rubber boot that protects the joint from dirt is gone. So for now I will just grease all the joints a little more often and keep a close eye on everything. At the first sign of any issues I will take it to Prevost for them to look at.
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Andre,
I replaced all of the rubber parts in my front end at 120k. The dust covers were the easiest and only took me a couple of days to complete. I replaced the upper and lower A arm bushings which took a week and a number of jacks and blocks, it was not an easy job and as Bill Jensen has said, the center part of all the bushings were still in good shape. That part of the job was unnecessary. Incidentally, Prevost Service replaces the entire A arm when doing this job. One of my upper A arm king pin ball joints was bad due to a clogged zerk fitting, I replaced both of them. The mtc, manual talks about special tools to do this. I did not have any special tools and did not need any. A sledge and a good whallop was needed to get them out. I would not recommend replacing the lower king pin joints because of failed dust covers only. I don’t recall it was particularly difficult but I did sweat getting everything supported so it could be done safely. The dog bone bushings in the sway bars are easy, takes a few hours on each end of the bus if you havent done it before. The main sway bar bushings were squeeking in our bus so I replaced them. It was an easy job, With the dog bones still attached, the sway bar self aligns. Needless to say a front end alignment should follow after doing anything to the steering. I used all 4 of Jon’s jack stands and both of my 20 ton jacks plus another small jack and a number of blocks. Needless to say, be careful, the A arms and sway bar are heavy.
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Brian,
Thanks for the detailed response. At this point I am going to ignore the large A arms and the large bal joints on the top and bottom A arm. I really suspect that the rubber bushings on the A arms are OK.
I want to try to replace the rubber dust covers on the smaller joints that are at the end of all the steering tie rod ends. All the parts that actually move the spindle back and forth.
Can you tell me where you got the rubber boots for the smaller steering components? Part number and supplier?
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Ordered them from Prevost. I don’t think they were expensive.
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