driveslow

I just ordered a pair of RTA's and was wondering if anyone would be willing to rent me or let me borrow their rta extractor? I can give you a deposit via paypal or if you are local to me, I can leave a deposit in cash.

RyanA

Brian's DIY works like a champ. Nothing needed except a hammer.

I bought an extractor then Brian showed up to get some parts and showed me this.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPTDzrxqoOo

turbo97coupe

^^^ worked for me everytime i did it

team1320_k26eg

nice video.. im gonna have to do mine soon.. brass hammer ftw!

92ehatch

thats a good DIY, except one thing.

i have seen those things coming out before, with the tool, and those damn things would shoot across the room if that tool didnt have a tether stopping them

i think if yours were that tight, it would be hard to remove them with just a hammer.

unless of course the direction you hit them matters, the tool removes them from the outside where as he is hammering from the inside

Vindicator9000

We used a BF hammer and a cast iron piston from an old tractor to do mine. They were a pain, but they went in.

I was very surprised that we didn't end up needing the special tool, although I'm sure it would have made it easier... well... that is, assuming you don't consider a tractor piston a special tool. Not everyone has one of those.

92ehatch

having a tractor piston would make you pretty special

special tool for a special guy LMAO

j/k


on a serious note, did yours come out as easy as the ones in the video?

driveslow

STOP!!! the point of the extractor is so that you dont have to pull out the arm, mess with brak cables etc etc.

here it is in action

[QUOTE=rmcdaniels;21084802]I've been having some severe issues with my rear stepping out under hard cornering at HPDE's. My rear would step out wide and abruptly before my tires even started to complain (very exciting at Roebling Road at 70 MPH). JDogg suggested that my ES poly trailing arm bushings may be binding, so Friday evening before I went to VIR I replaced them with Mugen hard rubber bushings. I took some pictures and thought I'd share:

In case you don't know, the trailing arm is what your rear suspension pivots on, here is a pic showing it, the brakes bolt on to the back of it:




Here's a pic of the other end, I circled the ES poly bushing that I'm replacing:




Here's the tool you will need if you want to DIY, otherwise you have to remove the trailing arms and take them to a machine shop:



You can buy it from Skyway Tools for $169 shipped, they were great to deal with and shipped the tool the same day that I ordered it. Here's a link:

http://shoptoolsshoptools.com/shopexd.asp?id=2784

Here are the Mugen bushings, they look exactly like OEM Honda bushings and probably are, but they only cost $40 more, so I took a chance that they were inproved in some way over OEM:










You'll need to measure a couple of things before you remove the bushings, because they need to be installed to the same depth and clocked correctly or they will be twisted under normal driving and will probably not last as long.

First you have to clock them, and it must be done with the car sitting on level pavement on all 4 wheels, just like it normally sits. I'm going to show a picture of me clocking it with the suspension dropped because that's the only way you can see what I'm doing (I have no lift, did this in the driveway), but when you clock yours you will have to reach up under there and do it by feel. I just put a metal ruler on the flat part of the tab on the center metal shaft of the bushing and used it to draw a line with a Sharpie on the trailing arm. When you install the new bushing, rotate it so that the ruler lines up with the line when you put it on the same place on the new bushing.


Here's a picture of the ruler on the tab:




Here's a shot of just the line that I made on the trailing arm:



Next you measure how far the bushings are in the hole, I just used a ruler and measured to the edge of the metal bushing housing from the trailing arm (I MS Painted a red line on it to show where to measure to). Mine had just under .5" of metal sticking out of the hole. Make sure you press in the new ones just to where the old ones were (in my case, just under .5" out of the hole).




Now it's time to take it off, you will need to jack up the rear of the car and remove the back wheels. Make sure you chock the front wheels and support the back of the car on jackstands:




Now you need to remove five bolts, first the toe adjustment bolt. Before you loosen this bolt, mark where it is in it's hole with a Sharpie, because if you don't put it back in the exact same spot then it will mess up your alignment.

Here's the bolt, it's on a little metal arm that's all the way at the front of your trailing arm:



I removed mine with a ratcheting wrench:






Next remove the two bolts in the center metal shaft of your trailing arm bushing. Here's a picture of the bolts looking up at the middle of the trailing arm from the bottom:



the trailing arm will hang down a bit, let it hang.

Next remove the bolts in the small upper arm, yours may look different from mine (mine are the camber-adjustable aftermarket kind), but they have the same two bolts that hold them on the car. Here are some pictures (I had already removed one of the bolts when I took the picture):






Now the arm will hang down under the car almost enough to get the bushing tool on it. You can prop it down with a piece of wood, of I just stuck my foot in there to hold it down to put the tool on it.

You hook the hooks on the tool around the edges of the trailing arm over the bushing (it is asymmetrical, so pay attention to the arrow that tells you which side is supposed to be pointing up), then place the cup over the bushing and ratchet the bolt on the tool down to push the bushing out of the control arm:







The bushing eventually drops out of the other side, just make sure it doesn't get behind the emergency brake cable and push it over too far:




Clean up the hole a bit (I used brake cleaner and a rag), then seat the new bushing in the hole by hand. The bushing is directional, so make sure the bottom side, marked with the letters "LWR" and an arrow, is on the bottom:




Next make sure the new bushing is aligned to the mark you made on the trailing arm:




With the bushing seated solidly by hand, put the tool with the cup over the new bushing, then turn the bolt to push the bearing into the trailing arm, exactly like you did earlier to remove the old bushing:





Push it in until it is in the hole the same amount as the original bushing:




Now you've got it in there, just like new:








It bolts back together in the reverse order of how it came apart, just make sure to tighten down the toe adjustment bolt in the exact same position that it was in originally or your alignment may be off.

This took me about an hour, but would take a lot less time if I did it again, the tool is really quick and easy to use.

The new bushings made a huge difference at VIR, it was like I had a different car. The rear is much more stable and no longer steps out. I was able to push the car much harder than I previously could, it was really amazing.

driveslow

[QUOTE=RyanA;38444521]Brian's DIY works like a champ. Nothing needed except a hammer.

I bought an extractor then Brian showed up to get some parts and showed me this.....


So do you still have the extractor??

Vindicator9000

Yes, they came out super easy with a big hammer. The hard part was getting them lined up right and getting them to go back in evenly.

driveslow

bumpage for i desperately need this tool

RyanA

Brian told me that they are tapered. That is why you knock them out in the direction he does. Then, reinstall in the direction he does. It's not just a cylinder but more of a tapered piece like pipe threads. As it goes deeper, it gets tighter.

Yes, I still have my extractor. It's still brand new in the box and never used. I do not want to rent it out...

mechanix619

I'll rent mine. pm me.

driveslow

thanks man, i just sent you a pm. Where are you located?

driveslow

bump

4Door Life

hey, im the guy in the DIY video...
most people dont realize the bushings are tappered, if you try to push them out the wrong way you take a big chance of hurting yourself and who ever else maybe in the room... when you remove them you MUST hit/push it out toward the wheel, when you instal the new ones the long part goes in first away from the wheel... just like i showed you in the video...

if your car is lowered, be sure to clock the bushing accordingly or it will go bad quicker then normal...

4Door Life

no you dont, you DO NOT NEED this tool... someone prolly made you think you do, but you do not...

whole reason behind me making this video was to prove this fact, and i did just that...

*edit*
also, theres no reason to remove the arm from the car, just leave the front toe arm connected, you wont even need an alignment when your done...

driveslow

I will try it with out the tool first. And WHOLY SMOKES, the dude in the diy pics was pushing them out from the wrong side?

4door life, what about the 10-12mm spacing that the bushing needs according to Honda? It appears that you just hammered away until it was flush with the outside of the control arm.

4Door Life

im not sure, he may have been i cant tell if he was taking it out or putting it in...

just remember, you want to knock it out from the inside out toward the wheel, they go back in the opposite way because there tapered... you dont need to hit them super hard, just tap the the top then tap the bottom, they will just fall out, they wont shoot across the room or anything...

driveslow

4door life, what about the 10-12mm spacing that the bushing needs according to Honda? It appears that you just hammered away until it was flush with the outside of the control arm.

4Door Life

i hate to say this but you are not only giving very bad info but you are putting people in harms way by saying this s the correct way to remove these bushings... if you will notice, the cup on the tool is deep, this is so the long part of the bushing will fit inside when used properly... to make you pic accurate you would need to push from the opposite side...

you DO NOT push them in toward the car, the bushings are tapered, you can only remove them and install them one way or you take a chance of damaging your RTA's or injuring yourself...

you MUST push them out from the inside out and put them in from the out side in...

sorry if this offends you but is the truth...

4Door Life

this is true...
if you look at the way the bushings sits before you remove it you will notice it is pushed in just a little bit from being flush on the top, you just need to tap it in until its even with the round part...

i'll try to make a diagram with MS paint and i'll post it up a few minutes to try to show what i mean...

driveslow

good deal, so flush at the bottom and even with the round part of the arm on top, right? you dont have to answer right away, ill wait for diagram thank man.

4Door Life

*edit* lol, i did it to quick and noticed i made a lil error...
the bottom will be flush, the top will sit in a little bit...

driveslow

in your video, the bottom is flush but in your ms paint the bottom stick out. Which one is it? thanks

Would you say this is a good example? actually never mind, its hard to tell with pictures