Crooked Cab has Squashed Donut.

[lightfoot]

This is a 1968 F100 240 six short bed. Looking at it from the rear, the driver’s side of the cab appears to be about ¾ inch lower than the passenger. At first I thought the bed was lower on the passenger side, but it’s just an optical illusion, it’s actually the cab is lower on the driver side. I verified this by crawling under the truck between the bed and the cab and found the rubber donut that separates the cab from the frame on the driver’s side, squashed to about ½ inch, but the passenger side looks fine and is almost 1 inch thick.

How much trouble is it to replace the 2 rear rubber donuts that separate the cab from the frame on a 1968 F100? Is there a quicker way to get the cab level?

[sargentrs]

The key is how badly the mounts have rusted together. It has an inner tube and an outer tube and they are prone to rust into a solid piece. If they'll separate when the bolt is removed, you're good. If they're rusted together, you could be in for hours of frustration and heartache. I had to cut mine apart.

[lightfoot]

The key is how badly the mounts have rusted together. It has an inner tube and an outer tube and they are prone to rust into a solid piece. If they'll separate when the bolt is removed, you're good. If they're rusted together, you could be in for hours of frustration and heartache. I had to cut mine apart.

Probably wishful thinking but, can the body be jacked up enough to slip in a new donut to the left or right of the old one, and then lower the body and just let friction hold it in place?

[sargentrs]

Possible, yes. You'd have to loosen all 4 bolts and probably remove the front and rear bolts from the side you're working on. You can peel the donut off from around the hardware but it's not easy and I don't think you'll have enough room to do so without removing the cab totally. Try removing the bolt from the squished mount and see if you can twist the bottom half. If it can be twisted, and the top half not turn with it, you've got a good chance of removing it. If not, its sawzall time. Replacement bushings and hardware kits are readily available.

[lightfoot]

Possible, yes. You'd have to loosen all 4 bolts and probably remove the front and rear bolts from the side you're working on. You can peel the donut off from around the hardware but it's not easy and I don't think you'll have enough room to do so without removing the cab totally. Try removing the bolt from the squished mount and see if you can twist the bottom half. If it can be twisted, and the top half not turn with it, you've got a good chance of removing it. If not, its sawzall time. Replacement bushings and hardware kits are readily available.

Wouldn’t the distance from the bolt head to the nut remain the same even if the donut got squashed? What I’m getting at is that if somehow the cab squashed the donut on the driver’s side then I would think that you should be able to bring the cab back to the original position without loosening all the other bolts by jacking up the cab at the rear of the driver’s side. Like with a block of 4X4 against the cab so the cab is lifted away from the frame, and then slip a new donut in there. Or would I risk damaging or twisting something?

[72BahamaBlue]

You may get away with lifting the cab corner, but the cab/fender/inner fender/radiator core support are all tied together. Trying to lift the corner alone might not give enough clearance.
I'd think about loosening the core support bolt, front and rear cab mount bolts on that side, it may lift enough for clearance. If the corresponding front cab mount is also compressed you'll need to do that as well. It all might affect the body panel alignment, especially the lower door to fender gap.

Something I came up with is a large heavy duty hose clamp, wrapped around the cab mount; there might be enough room to center it around the rubber between the frame and cab. Jack up/unweigh/wedge up the cab corner as bet you can and tighten away. Check it during a hot day after a drive, you might be able to tighten the clamp further.
I was able to raise the driver's side of the cab only about 1/8" or so doing this, but it did help.

[lightfoot]

Yesterday (Sunday) I placed my jack under the cross beam at the rear of the driver’s door and jacked away. Amazingly the body came right up away from the frame and the bump aligned from front to rear. I then cut and stacked strips of a large rubber hose 1in X 3in until I built up a thickness of about 1 1/4 in and then wrapped them with electrical tape. Then I went under the truck with a crowbar and my new "spacer" and fit this between the cross beam and the frame. Now comes stupid. The spacer was 1/4 in too thick, (which is what I wanted) so I used the crowbar to pry the cab up a little further but it slipped and I cracked myself in the face next to my nose. Bled like a stuck pig and I now have a beaut of a black eye. Anyway after patching myself up I got back under and was able to get the spacer in but when I lowered the cab the bump still didn't align. It was better but the cab was still about 3/8 in lower than the bed. Frustrated I cut up some 1 1/2 X 3/4 X 3 in oak and made a solid spacer 1 1/4 in thick and put this in the rear corner between the cab and frame. This time when I lowered the cab everything aligned perfectly. Panel and door alignment is all good, and the doors open and close with no issues. I took it out for a ½ hour ride and didn’t feel or hear anything to cause concern. I guess time will tell if I need to do this the right way but for now I’m happy with the results, except for the black eye.

[sargentrs]

I've done worse

[72BahamaBlue]

Perserverance pays off! Hope the wound(s) heal fast.