Ok, I don't want to waste my time and money buying a product based what is the most popular or the priciest. With that said I am in the process of piecing together my 95 EJ1 project.

Through a donor car I have picked up the full disc conversion and I want to replace the trailing arm bushings as well as every other bushing on the car (rear + front LCA, upper control arm etc).

My question is this. This car will see drag + auto-x in the near future. . What are good bushing choices for this type of driving style?

OEM
Hardrace - Leaning towards this option
Energy Suspension
Blox Shperical (trailing arm only) - Buddy mentioned it so I figured I would get feedback

All information is appreciated. I am not worried about the price if the quality matches.

 

Rubber with a higher duro...harder rubber. Spherical works on the trailing arm as well is in the upper rear control arm - great places for those actually...but from experience those will get beat up while driving on public roads.

I would consider poly as a material for swaybar bushings and perhaps top mounts.

I would also consider upgrading all of the engine mounts, especially if you intend to drag race. But ear plugs too

 

I have a set of Innovative black anodize mounts with the base red inserts for mounts. I had a black/gray combo on my EJ2 a couple months back and couldn't hear myself think lol. It was like driving a $.25 Magic Bed.

I heard the same about spherical trailing arm bushings. They seem to work well, but with the majority of driving being done on public roads I don't thing I want to change them every 6 months.

So it seems that Hardrace would be a good choice for trailing arms and front LCA?

I am looking to get F7 LCAs soon since I hear nothing, but bad things about the quality of Skunk2, Blox etc.

 

I'm using the complete Hard Race kit in my GS-R and it's been great. Nice quality, and for $250 you can't beat it. The same bushings from Mugen cost nearly $1000, or $700 for all brand new OEM.

I would NEVER use poly on any load-bearing bushing in the suspension. I actually had them for my shifter bushings but went back to new OEM rubber for those because the poly ones dry rotted in only 4 years or so.

*edit* also have F7 arms and love them, too.

 

I have the complete Hard Race kit in my civic and I love them. Install was a breeze. Very good product thus far.

 

Thanks guys for all the good info. It seems like Hardrace is the kit for me then. At $250 you really can't beat it. I hear nothing, but good things about them.

I did however order the ES shifter bushings, but after reading this it looks like I'll just order an OEM set when I buy all my gaskets for my motor.

Question - For the front LCA, what did you guys use to press them in and extract? Pretty easy to DIY? I planned on buying an extra set of EX LCAs so I could have no down time when swapping parts. I'm somewhat of a clean freak so all the suspension components I have off the car are getting disassembled, scrubbed clean and getting new parts

 

I had a friend press them in at his shop for $120 (all bushings except rear LCA's since I have F7's).

I tried DIY with a large bench vise but failed. I got one of the bushings out of my stock rear LCA's by tearing the rubber out, then using a hacksaw on the metal sleeve. Then I tried pressing the new bushing in by putting the bushing in the freezer first, but that didn't work. So I just took all the other parts off and had them pressed in.

 

i'm also using the complete Hardrace bushing kit on my EG. great kit and i was also against the Poly bushings due to many people having them warp and creak within a year or 2 of use.

the bushing kit is one of the best suspension mods IMO for our older cars. just remember to clock/preload your suspension once you're putting it back on the car (on a hoist i hope!).

btw, i had the ES bushings for my shifter but replaced that with a Hardrace shifter bushing instead...also a step up in feel as it's not sloppy at all compared to the ES one after a year.

 

i have F7's and skunk 2 f&r camber arms. The fronts i lubed with some nice poly grease and they are quiet as can be. rears squeak like a bitch. I replaced my trailing arms with OEM bushings. i pretty much just deal with the poly squeak in the rear as i dont care to much and plan to dynamat my car anyway. but i wouldnt buy a poly bushing for that spot again if i need to buy them

 

Sounds like I will just pay a shop to press in the bushings on the front LCA and I'll DIY with the trailing arm since the tool seems pretty straight forward.

I am a little confused on the "pre-loading" of the suspension. Can someone explain?

Also, I planned on purchasing SPC front/rear camber kits. Anyone have these? Any issues?

 

again poly is up to you but its noisy if not lubed properly. so if you get the SPC poly bushings be ready.

prelaoding is putting the bushings under load prior to fully tightening them. if you have access to an alignment rack that is the easiest way to preload bushings. other than that finger tight the bolts while its jacked up put it on the ground than tighten/torque them to spec and your good to go. you can also jack up the part you are doing to put it under load. thats what i did with my LCAs and so far so good

 

poly works great if you lube them and don't live in a crazy winter salted road state. all the complaints seem to come from these areas. for install. poly can be done in a vice. hardrace requires a 20 ton press. harbor freight has them for 199. when you consider labor is 120-150 to have the shop press them after you take out all the arms and drive them down....199 is a good deal for a new tool and you not having to run around.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to lube the **** out of the SPC kit if I decide to go with them and I will definitely preload the suspension

True. I rent a house with my buddy and his project 914 is in the garage so there isnt much room with that and all my DC/Civic parts everywhere lol

 

I used a big socket set, a press, a oven, and a fidge. I put all of my suspension parts in an oven and heated them up. I then pressed out the old bushings with a socket that fit the size of the bushing. I cleaned everything and put the new bushings in the freezer and the suspension back in the oven. On more than a few I set the bushing on the press, then pressed the arm on to the bushing. I also used pieces of sheetmetal to make everthing level. I also had a freind there to help keep everything level while pressing.

 

I was told with the poly bushings with the metal sleeves that slip in, like Energy Suspension, you do not have to preload because nothing is bound together it spins freely.

 

the press doesn't take up much space. light that slow POS 914 on fire or put a small block in it and drive, choose one. anyway, back to the 20ton press. they are about 6' and change tall but less than 12" deep and maybe 3' wide. against the wall it takes up about half the room as a set of tires

 

Rubber bushings should NOT be pre-loaded! Also, bushings can only be pressed into the boring in one direction!!! You do not have a choice. Every boring has a tapper and the tapper is responsible fro creating a littlefriction and this helps to hold the bushing in place. The bushing is pressed out in the opposite direction it is pressed in.

Now, back to pre-load - and 1.5slowmatic touched on this. When ever a control arm is removed and reinstalled you must perform the final torque with the full weight of the car on the wheels. If you think aboout a rubber bushing as a rubber band you will see in your mind's eye that if you up push up on the control arm you will feel resistance. If you push down on the control arm you also feel resistance. The reason we perform the final torque at body rest is so the resistance is the same up or down off the position of rest(bump and rebound). This is a very important part of set up. If your LCA are parallel with the ground - and they really should be - the resitance should be the same for the first inch of bump and the first inch of rebound. The inch incriment is an example.

Pre-loading bushings will affect corner weighting as well. If the final torque is performed with the car on a lift and all four wheels are hanging, imagine the twist in the bushings as the car is lowered...this will affect corner weights...the bushings will also fail prematurely...if you can imagine them being twisted in their borings you will understand.

When you change your ride height you should always loosen all control arm bolts and then re-torque these with the weight of the car on the wheels.

There are some habits that we should all follow because a clean, consistent, meticulous removal and re-instal will help to eliminate set up problems later. There are always problems, but this one is easy to skirt by.

 

+!

 

The 914 does have a small block

If I bought the press I would only use it for the front LCA. I really don't have much space for a press with what we have in the garage, trust me lol.

 

Thanks for the good info

 

What I should have writen more clearly is that when a bushing is twisted it has a rising mechanical rate in bump and a rising kinetic rate in rebound. They act more like springs than bushings in this case.

 

For most of us, doing this sort of work at home (at least installing the suspension arms, etc). means the bolt torquing will have to be done with a jack putting a load on the suspension just to the point of the car lifting off the jackstand. Due to the ride height of most of our cars, there is simply no way to tighten these bolts with the car sitting on the ground.

Using a jack will get you close to actual ride height, though not exact, due to the jack pushing up under the LCA instead of out where the wheel attaches to the hub.

When I had my bushings installed, I actually used a jack and tightened the suspension arm bolts with no shocks/springs installed and sway bars disconnected. I measured the hub-to-fender distance before starting the work, with the car on the ground, and then replicated that distance with the jack when torquing all the suspension arm bolts. This put the suspension bushings in the exact orientation they would be in with the car sitting on the ground.

 

I drove my car on ramps...easy enough, though not enough room to get completely under the car. Plnty of room for a torque wrench if you don;t mind the short throws due to limited room between car and ground.

 

With the wheel off you can jack the outermost portion of the LCA, the caliper, or even the wheel studs. All of them will get you a more simulated ride-height (load).

 

I think ramps are these easiest and will produce repeatable results. Don't forget, when you jack up the LCA against the springs you will reach a point when the car will begin to left off the jack...a wee bit unsafe...the heavier the spring rate the easier it is to run into a dangerous situation.