Hallo there,

I just wanted to share it with you, in case someone wants to install them and dont have the very best tools.. I thought it was time to buy a hydraulic press, but then I realised that, at that moment i didnt have the money.. You dont really need a press to install the urethane bushings, you just need it to remove the OEM ones.. As most of you know, they have a steel shell and they need to be pressed out, OR you have to kill them

I will just show you the Front Upper A-arm pivots installation (as they have a lot of differences with the lower arm bushings) and one of the lower arms (the rear one is shown here).. All other bushings are the same.

Firstly you need a ball joint remover to remove the A-arm and the lower arms from the car. be careful when you do that in the car because you may get hurt..

I had a civic ee9 vtec 1991, which is resting in peace now, as a bloody VW ignored the stop sing.. then with the money i got from the insurance i bought another ef (im obsessed as you can see).. SO i have a lot of parts sitting around. I decided to install the bushings on the old ones, and then I will install them to the new ef.. In that way I will have a car everyday while doing my homework

Here are the spare parts. (not all of them)


First remove the 2 bolts that hold the plastic protector


There is a bolt there. dont try to remove it as it is secured with a pin. remove tha pin and then remove the bolt.
Then place the ball joint remover. the fork goes between the ball joint and the knuckle, and the other part of the bjr presses the bolt. Then you just stretch the big 19mm bolt.. Then you hear a "clack" and it comes out. If you do that while on car you have to use a stand or sth else to hold it in place.


I cleaned the ball joint with petrol, and then greased the hell out of it I know the knife is funny but that was the only "clean" and "worthless" thing in my garage


I then used the oem ball joint cap (is this the correct term??) again, because the energy ones were crappy, as the whole grease was pouring out! (they dont have a ring to hold it inside..not even a groove to "lock" on tha joint.


So here is the upper arm pivot. There is a little arm that holds these two pivots together. You can separate the pivots from this arm using a hammer


This is a stupid paint file, to show you the order that you have to follow. First we cut the one side of the oem bushing.. If you dont do that it will be impossible to remove the pin, as the shell is curbed and holds it in VERY strongly..


EVEN NOW it is very difficult to remove the pin. I used a dremel to weaken it, drilling holes in the rubber..


Then remove the pin and as much rubber as you can.. The following proccess is stupid but cheap You cut the steel case vertically (again in order to weaken it) and then using a hammer and a strong screwdriver try to bend it. then it will come out easily..



Then clean the inside of the pivot using sand paper. The installation of the urethane bushing is a peace of cake. you just use A LOT of grease, and press it in.

Then press the pin inside the bushing. again use alot of grease if you dont want your suspension to be noisy

Here it is..


Thats it. Install the pivots to the steel holder, and then to the knuckle again..

Its a lot easier to do that on the lower control arms (front and rear). This is a demonstration of the rear one. For some reason the rear lca pivot bushings were 1mm smaller than they should be (the shock ones were ok).. the kit had both 88 and 90-91 bushings, but even the 91 were 1mm smaller (the 88 ones were even smaller than that..) I accidently noticed that if i install the urethane bushing without removing the oem steel case/shell, the clearence is perfect! The proccess is the same. Then you clear the rubber using a dremmel



The installation of the energy bushing is so easy that you can do it with your hand.. I know that energy lubricant is not that good, but i used it because they suggest it. so if the suspension sqeezes, i know who to blame for

I also painted the arms because they had rusted a bit.. Some of them were painted after and some others before the installation of energy bushings.. i suggest you do it before.


If the pics dont work, its because of the hoster.. its having some holidays these days... grrr




Modified by Bill_Ee9 at 8:50 AM 3/4/2007

 

good work, i did this last year, and it was a bitch. you will def notice the difference when you drive it

 

This something I will be doing in the next few weeks - hope everything goes smoothly - If not might have to bring out the Blowtorch

 

what LCA are those exactly?? they arent typical rear LCA that we get. looks like they were for a car with ABS. they dont look like integra either. probably why you had issues with the sizing of the bushing. you really arent supposed to use the original bushing sleeve.

are they from your old car??
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bill_Ee9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had a civic ee9 vtec 1991,</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

thanks guys

well as far as i know you dont have Si-R's there (at least the efs and egs) am i right?
This is an oem european EE9 rear lower control arm. MAYBE the JDM and EUDM have the same LCAs, and the JDM has ABS as far as i know (we in europe dont).

I think the diffence with the DX,esi model is that this is a little bented. Yours are straight ones. But why do you say that this should have abs? what did you notice? The only "strange" thing i noticed was a small hole between the Sock mount bushing, and the knuckle mount bushing! (as you can see above)

PS: the new is an ee9 as well (i mean both have the same lcas as they are Si-Rs)

 

well this is starting to get interesting...

the little bend near the inner bushing is normal. we have that too on our Si arms. the DX arms dont have the bend. why the difference? i dunno and im not going to guess its for some crash reasons as some might surmise because that doesnt make much sense to me. either way, it doesnt make a difference so i dont care.

anyway, i mentioned the abs because of the small hole which would secure the abs wire.

whats the MOST interesting to me is the hump or extra material around the shock bushing. thats definately not like anything ive seen on a CRX here.

however, i do know this that the FRONT lca from a Si-R (JDM or Euro) has a different LCA as well since the front swaybar uses balljoint linkage instead of a rubber bushing.

also of note is that your bushings are different. theyre more similar to the DA integra bushings. probably a bit stiffer than our normal ones.

very interesting.

im pretty sure your ES bushing kit was made with only USDM control arms in mind. seeing that your arm and bushings are different, its not a surprise they didnt quite fit as planned.

 

here's what we get in the US.



the box channel style came in 88's only, then went to the forged style from 89 onward. but i know they continued in japan and i thought europe with the box channel style.

what i didnt know is that the SiR or VTI came with the forged rear suspension. thats not quite consistent... but who knows.

the reason for switching here in the US from box to forged doesnt seem to have a real reason, seeing the higher end model in japan or europe with the forged style too doesnt make it any clearer.

 

Tyson asked me to chip in, but I had abit of a hard time finding pictures.

OK, well the EE8(crx) and EE9(hatch) models do have different suspension components than the Si does.
The bend you see on the arms is pointing the other way on the VT models compared to the Si ones.
By the way, the Si control arms are identical to the 16V control arms on the EDM models.

What I don't understand, is why you had fitment issues. I know for a fact that the arms are interchangable, because I replaced the 16V arms on my car with the VT ones. The VT ones are a little heavier as well. I also have the energy bushings in my car.

To demonstrate, I "borrowed" a couple of pictures off a guy on a Dutch forum. Kudo's go to him.





As you can see, he also has the ES bushing set in his control arms.

 

to the OP good right up

jusdt on thing did bother me

when you say GRASS i think you mean GREASE

sorry it jsut bothered me a bit lol

 

Great writeup. I'm going to be doing a ES bushing install in the next few weeks. So this going to be very handy. I do some questions -

1. I've heard to prevent squeaking you need to "clock" the bushings. I'm not sure but I think that means installing them like the suspension is under load so they aren't twisted. Is that right and how do you do it?

2. What bushings did you need that weren't included in the kit? I know they include some junk you don't need (balljoint boots) but some stuff you you need isn't included (strut rod bushings). Can you generate a list of the essential bushings that aren't included?

 

looks good man, i might be doing this in the near future

 

GRASS? Aahahahaha im really stupid.. im going to correct it...

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
1. I've heard to prevent squeaking you need to "clock" the bushings. I'm not sure but I think that means installing them like the suspension is under load so they aren't twisted. Is that right and how do you do it? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well this is interesting as well. If you install an arm on the car (lets say lca) with OEM bushings, you will notice that the arm will be able to rotate only for about 25degrees! If you rotate it further it will twist very much and you are actually destroying it. I bet, a brand new OEM bushing will rotate less! This is how the oem bushings work. Cause the pin is in contact with the rubber and have glued together. Now i did the same thing with the energy ones, and you could rotate the arm over and over! Thats because the pin can rotate freely. So actually if you put a lot of grease (not grass) you dont really need to "clock" them (in other words, you cant preload ES bushings.. well at least in my occasion.. maybe they are NEW now and later they will be like oems?? dunno.. But when i install them on my car, i will install the whole assembly first (upper arm, lca, front strut etc) then i will move the knuckle in the optimum position, and AFTER i will torque the bolts! (this is the clocking method actually)..

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
2. What bushings did you need that weren't included in the kit? I know they include some junk you don't need (balljoint boots) but some stuff you you need isn't included (strut rod bushings). Can you generate a list of the essential bushings that aren't
included?</TD></TR></TABLE>

the kit includes these:

-Front Lower Control Arm (the one that holds the arm to the car and the shock bushing)
-Front Strut Rod Bushings *
-Front Steering End Link Boots (crappy)
-Front Upper and Lower Ball Joint Boots (crappy)
-Rear Control Arm Bushings (again, all of them, inc. the shock ones)
-Shift Linkage Bushings (Yummy!)
-Steering Rack Bushings (Yummy)
edit: forgot to mention the UPPER SHOCK MOUNT BUSHINGS.. for those who dont have pillow upper mounts these are good..

Thats the set.. The big trailing arm bushings are sold as a separate set...

* actually these bushings, are smaller than the oem ones, and are very stiff. Also when you install them on the rod you will notice that they leave a lot of gap in the middle section (where they mount to the car).. I will show you a picture tomorrow guys, and i will try to see how these work installing them on the rip'ed ef, so im gonna tell you..

So you need absolutely nothing for the front system Ti Rider. But you need a lot for the rear one.. They dont have the rear upper arm (but i dont bother as im going to b uy a camber kit which comes with new ones so its a good solution). and they dont have the ones for the little arm that is located in the front of the trailing arm (actually its the one you adjust the toe..any idea how do they call this? )

I didnt use the ones for the sway bars , as we have ball joints in sirs..

Sorry for the long post, and ignore the stupid mistakes..


Modified by Bill_Ee9 at 9:03 AM 3/4/2007


Modified by Bill_Ee9 at 9:06 AM 3/4/2007

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

What I don't understand, is why you had fitment issues. I know for a fact that the arms are interchangable, because I replaced the 16V arms on my car with the VT ones. The VT ones are a little heavier as well. I also have the energy bushings in my car.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well they are interchangeable as the bolt holes are exactly the same size and the arm is exactly the same length! But it seems that the bushings are not interchangeable! (or at least my set)


Tomorrow i will post some pics that might help a little bit. We are here to solve the EF mystery...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bill_Ee9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well this is interesting as well. If you install an arm on the car (lets say lca) with OEM bushings, you will notice that the arm will be able to rotate only for about 25degrees! If you rotate it further it will twist very much and you are actually destroying it. I bet, a brand new OEM bushing will rotate less! This is how the oem bushings work. Cause the pin is in contact with the rubber and have glued together. Now i did the same thing with the energy ones, and you could rotate the arm over and over! Thats because the pin can rotate freely. So actually if you put a lot of grease (not grass) you dont really need to "clock" them (in other words, you cant preload ES bushings.. well at least in my occasion.. maybe they are NEW now and later they will be like oems?? dunno.. But when i install them on my car, i will install the whole assembly first (upper arm, lca, front strut etc) then i will move the knuckle in the optimum position, and AFTER i will torque the bolts! (this is the clocking method actually)..

</TD></TR></TABLE>

your assessment of how the ES bushings should work is correct in theory, but in practice it really doesnt work out that way. the front and rear lower control arm bushings do move in slightly more than just 1 radial axis. which means, since the bushing is designed to constrict movement in all but 1 radial axis, it will end up binding. the binding and the uneven vertical and side loads it will see with normal use will eventually deform the polyurathane bushing permanently. it does happen. and when it does, it will cause lots of slop in the bushing, exactly what its NOT supposed to do.

you can see some evidence of this clearly here.
http://www.crxsi.com/resources...rflex/

theres also a video showing the slop in the bushing. itll be posted later hopefully.

some ppl continue to swear by the durability of the ES poly bushing and design. but many others have reported extremely short lifespans than expected.


for the record, i always recommend replacing bushings with OEM. the limited angle available before "destroying" and OEM bushing is intentional. consider that bushing adding to the compliance and spring rate to your suspension. you just have to "clock" the bushing when changing ride heights or installing for the first time. its in the official shop manual even.

 

Τhanks tyson.

First of all, i know that the oem bushings are better than the energy ones. but here in europe these are very expensive and i thought it would be a good idea to try those..

As for the bushing movement, damn you are right! So thats why the old bushings had a bit of an angle? Hmm.. So Its clear that the energy bushings will bind. but Will this be any good in terms of performance?? I mean, will this restrict bumpsteer??

this is more noticeable on the rear trailing arm, I THINK that if i install the ES rear ones, i wont be able to adjust the rear toe! Is that assumption true?? How the hell can i adjust toe, if the lateral movement is restricted? I will install them anyway cause im really curious..

PS: the link you posted is very good, i will read it right now.. (maybe some of my questions will be answered there)

 

bill, whatever you do, dont get the big trailing arm bushing. that will completely restrict rear movement. OEM is the beste thing to use and is cheap, at least for us here.

with ES bushings, its not like your car wont be able to move. it just wont move properly. itll feel tight. which a lot of ppl respond well to when they first put them on. they think any change they feel is a good thing. but really, its not always the case. especially if youve replaced a part thats broke (old, worn, torn bushings) with something new, but improper.

you will be able to get rear toe adjustment. it will just resist it (which binds it). its not like poly is steel, it does have some give, even if you cant seem to deform it with your fingers, 2000lbs of weight will. poly is just not MEANT to give... while the suspension is supposed to. which makes it a bad fit.

 

I am glad I read this Post. I was actually getting ready to order energy bushings. But I guess after reading this OEM bushings is the way to go. Does anyone know where the best place would be to order some OEM bushings.