thumper64

The metal ring that is pressed into the trailing arm has to stay for ES bushings, and it would be a pain to beat out anyway. The rubber part all has to be removed, along with two crescent shaped metal pieces that *seem* worthless. What I did was I heated that outer ring (not the rubber) from the back of the trailing arm and pryed the two cresent shaped pieces of metal away from the metal ring, and the rubber came off cleanly. That's all there is to it. Any little bits of rubber left, scrape off with a knife and sand smooth.

To clean the center section, again, heat the metal portion and when you cut the rubber, it will release.

For pressing the new bushings in, follow the instructions and make the press tool. It works like a charm.

*note, the torch idea may not be safe for doing with the trailing arms on the car, so preferably remove them or at the very least, have someone nearby with a hose or something.

civic_r87111

Cool, sounds nice and easy enough. I used a hacksaw blade and my air saw but ur way sounds easier, lol. I'll have to try it new time!

thumper64

Yeah, I was amazed when it happened. Hopefully it saves someone a little effort.
If it matters, I was using MAPP gas and I was heating it until it started smoking a little bit and the top edge of the rubber was catching fire.

Does anyone know where to get gigantic washers, like 3" OD or larger? I made my bushing installation tool using all-thread, 2 regular washers, 2 nuts and 2 of these funny looking bracket things to attach pipe to a wall.

nothing_shocking

you wouldn't happen to have any pics of this process would you? i ordered some of these recently, and i'm hoping to get them in by the end of the year.

Kidnkorner

People are still buying these? I thought for sure no one would knowing that it's been proven time and again these bind and actually handle worse then OEM rubber.

nothing_shocking

really? i hadn't heard that... where did you find that out? what would be better instead of these or oem? oh, and i have an integra disk swap if that matters...

thumper64

I heard that after installing them. I'm going to wait and see how bad it is before I even consider buying new ones to replaced these.

thumper64

It's pretty straight forward. Looking at the back side of the arms (towards the inside of the car), heat the metal ring that is pressed into the trailing arm. Then you pry the two curved metal pieces in the rubber towards the center and they'll detach cleanly.

nothing_shocking

it'll probably make more sense when i'm looking at it, lol. mine are starting to rip a little bit, but i don't want to put in the ES ones if they're no good. i'm trying to find something better, but i'm not having any luck right now...

Kidnkorner

If you HAVE to replace with something than OEM rubber I suggest something like this or the like

http://passwordjdm.com/PasswordJDM-R...P1854C139.aspx

The spongeness

OEM ftw, you will regret your choice in a few months.

redsidriver

i cut the middle bar out with a saw and just burned the rest of the rubber with a torch . was pretty easy just took some time and used a screw driver to srap it off at it burns . after that i got a hug bolt at home depot with huge washer and a nut to press in the new bushing . ive done this twice and may seem weird it was the only thing i could think of without spending a lot of money or ataking somewhere to get done

fastrxu

Pics? Please

Corksil

I got mine in with basic tools, using a vice for the press. I had no press tool, and I viced the bushings in while the trailing arms were still on the car. I couldn't get the parking brake cables disconnected so they were looping through the trailing arms and stopping me from fully separating them from the vehicle.

The ES bushings seem to handle fine. in my experience with them, the biggest difference is the harshness from the back end when hitting bumps. You feel every crack in the road, every pothole, and every reflector hitting you in the ***. As far as the binding, I don't notice it extremely. From my experience with OEM and ES poly trailing arm bushings - the back of the car seems to follow the front more. What I mean is, while hard cornering, the back of the car seems to be more prone to sliding. However, when the back end breaks loose, it won't step out past the front. It's like the car is going to drift, but the back end just skitches around a bit and grabs again. The back of the car will not slide out past the front wheels, it just follows them more precisely. It feels kinda scary at first when the back end lets go and you feel it sliding around the turn behind you, but I have yet to fully loose control and slide out. I have yet to experience the back end step out further than the front end and cause me to loose control.

I like the feel of ES poly trailing arm bushings better than OEM.

Corksil

I should add - the front tires are 7inches wide, the rears are atleast an inch less. There are full poly bushings throughout the car, EVERYWHERE. I think they are a full system, you need all of them for them to fully work together and perform the way they are designed.

The suspension is stock.

Unseen Racer

pics or video would be sooooo helpfull

Matt93eg

Nice read. I need to put in new trailing arm bushings as well as every other bushing. My car is my DD so I gotta do it in stages it looks like. Where are you guys ordering your ES kits? I found the kit at Energy Suspension.Com for $138.64.

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com...od=16%2E18103#

I would have to get the trailing arm bushings seperate for an extra $23.99

Corksil

energysuspensionparts.com is where I got all of my polyurethane. graham slaughter is a great guy to deal with, he helped me get things sorted out with rapid emails which answered my questions perfectly.

I got everything they made for my car, except motor mount inserts. sway bar mounts front/rear, control arms front/rear, compensator arms, shifter bushings, power steering rack... everything and the master set. Spent a ****ton of money...

It was a pain getting them all installed, something like 60+ little pieces of red polyurethane had to be slammed, stuffed, jammed, viced, crushed, or mashed into their little holes. Fun times, took a long time. Glad I did it though...

Now I understand that the oem bushings are built for comfort, and the poly ones are built for handling. I feel way more stuck to the road, even if my *** gets a little sore on the bumps. Recommended upgrade for performance, not comfort.

Any other questions, pm me or post them up. The only ones I haven't installed yet are the power steering rack, I'm waiting for when I pull my motor out and can get to it easily.

civic_r87111

I'm with Corksil, I did the whole ES kit and the trailing arm bushings and the car seems to hug the road better to me as well. Granted I have yet to do any extream cornering in this car and I also have the integra rear disk conversion. Made the car feel like a new car again and was ceaper than OEM rubbers. My car has 180k on the chassis too.

3rdgen3

Thats badass man. What car do you have...EF, EG, EK, Teggy?

Ive put a lot of poly on my car too, i bought the complete reflex kit from ES last year and ive installed most of them...i havent done the rear trailing arm ones yet because ive been seeing mixed reviews...the car is my daily and i can deal without all the comfort (i have solid poly engine mounts for **** sakes. The vibration and rattles are worse than anything suspension related i bet) but I dont want to be taking an on-ramp with a bit of rain or snow and have the *** slide the hell out on me...

BTW taking the rack out of my EJ6 with the motor in the car and WITHOUT dropping the front engine cradle wasn't that hard at all...i put the poly mounts on mine

Corksil

I have a 94 del slo vtec. sounds like rack-removal isn't impossible after all... maybe i'll get bold and tackle these bushings next time I start wrenching on my ride.

you could sell the ES trailing arm bushings on ebay and get some hard-rubber or OEM ones but I don't see the point. I personally see nothing wrong with the poly ES ones, they seem fine to me. though I have yet to autox my car after installing them...

Doc13

Really, you don't need anything more than stock. If you use the "race" hard bushings, you are going to feel every bump in the road.
Plus, harder bushings don't last as long as Oem.
Your car though.

redsidriver

maybe be so but it also makes it more fun to drive