My whole front and rear suspension is just shot. The springs, shocks, bushings, everything! I'll be upgrading my shocks and springs but what about the bushings? I heard it's pretty hard to do all the bushings that come in the master set. Is this true? Has anyone had experience with this? Noisy? Thanks in advance!

 

its not thats its hard if you are mechanically inclined. its just <U>very</U> time consuming. i worked on the bushings over about 3 weeks. i have had no squeaks yet. i used all the grease they give you (which isn't very much). excellent product i must say. car is very responsive and tight feeling. i payed $130 from summit

 

but didnt you have to machine press them?

 

Yes, I had to have mine pressed out by a machine shop. The first shop could not do it, but the 2nd shop did. Told me they had to make a special tool to do it. It ended up costing about $175. It's a good thing I got a hook up. Ended up being free to me because of trade.

 

you have to remove the metal sleeves from inside the control arms. i took my sawzall and slit the sleeves. then i used the air chisel to punch it out. i tried to use the press at work but i couldn't find any sockets to fit the sleeve just right. they kept kicking out sideways. to put the new ones in i lightly sanded in side the control arm. greased it. i also put the bushings in the freezer to try to shirnk them a little. then i greased the bushings lightly. insterted the bushing and used a vise to squeeze the bushings in. its a lot of work to change all the bushings. i wouldn't ever want to do it again. but the new bushings are so worth it.

 

i did a whole bushing install myself it was a pain in the ***. If you could get extra parts to minimize down time it woudl be great.

tools needed:

bench vise
torch
hack saw
cold chisel
vise grips
hammer

that is only after you remove what everpart you are replaceing the bushings in.

1. I used a torch to burn out the rubber portion while holding on to the metal center with vise grips to help remove it.

2. once the rubber and metal center are gone i put the hack saw blade inside the whole and cut the outside metal sleeve to ease the pushing out of it. You should try really hard not to cut into the control arm, just enough to cut through the outside metal.

3. once it is cut you can use the cold chiseld to help loosen it and slowly push it out one side. depending on how tight they are you might be able to use a correct size socket to use ase a driver to smack with a hammer to push it out.

(3. Optional) if you have a press use that with the sockets to press out the old metal sleeves. if you do it this way earlier steps can be skipped.

4. most bushign can be put in after you clean up the hoel by hand, for those that dont come in 2 pieces use the bench vise to push them into place.

I hope this helps, its a huge PITA!!

good luck.

 

looks like ill have a big job ahead of me

 

my friend was dumping his shell so i decided to yank his front LCAs, and rear LCA with his rear sway bar!

i just finished taking out the metal sleeves, now gotta get my self a new hacksaw blade and hack it out and then comes the hammer!

hoping to have all this done by the end of the month!

 

tell us how it turns out, if it makes a good diff.

 

the LCAS are a bitch, i think ill bring it to a shop to get them pressed out... fawk

 

I didn't have a press and I wasn't about to go pay a grip to have them prssed out either. I did it all myself and it's really not that hard to do! You could do it all in one day if you wanted. I did the front install in one day (7 or 8 hours) while I was swapping out knuckles.

The LCA bushings are the worst so do them first. The first bushing I did on the LCA was not too easy, but after I figured out what needed to be done I got the process down and the rest or them took about 5~10 minutes each to do. I photo documented the "how-to" so you can check it out here:
http://home.socal.rr.com/civic4dr4g/...tall/index.htm

 

whats BFH?
i used a similar method.... just those sleeves are a real pain!

 

bfh=big ****** hammer

 

this question is asked so much. My input--rip the entire susp out, tackle it at once. Take the arms to a machine shop, dont burn them out. Grease the living hell out of everything. Go straight to the alignment shop afterwards. Luckily for me my vehicle has no rust issues, but if your susp bolts are rusted this is a WHOLE nother ball game! SOAK every bolt overnight in a lubricant so the risk of bolt snapping is lessened.


[Modified by Ef *****, 9:35 AM 2/8/2003]

 

I replaced all my bushings with Energy Suspension Master Kit. Big improvement. Reduces wheel hop, body roll, you name it. I've got yellow coloured ones. Advice: Stick with the black ones. They're less squeeky. Besides, you can only see two bushings clearly (rear lower control arms).

Another advice: Do fronts one day and do rears another.

Make friends with someone who has a press. Use large impact sockets on the press. Most muffler shops will do it for a reasonable price -- I got a muffler shop to do mine. If the buy and sell has a used press on sale, buy it as a press comes in handy for all kinds of other work (I should've thought of this back when I did my bushings). You can heat them up, struggle like mad and get them off, but getting them pressed out is worth it. Why get frustrated? Time is money, right?

The beauty about the polyurethane bushings is that if you ever need to replace them, it's no big deal. Much easier than stock to re and re. With the master kit, it's easy to forget a piece or two. Fronts were pretty easy, but the rear was a pain for me........ seized bolts. I've heard they break (I was lucky), so make sure you do this when places are open (not stat holidays or Sundays).

Get the Poly's. They are definitely worth it. Especially on old cars like ours.

 

He's right get the black--they are graphite impregnated to reduce noise.

 

damni got the red ones. I actually have the arms off another car that im putting them on and working on...

 

get the black ones. the composite they use to make them colors. makes them squeek...i have red, and it squeeks it's *** off

 

i guess ill use black the next time

 

prothane doesn't believe in the black impregnated bushings. they feel that it weakens the bushing. i think on their website they talk about it.

http://www.prothane.com/Main_Menu/main_menu.html

 

Werd
Also all of there bushings are one or two peice, none of that three peice crap!


[Modified by CRX-RX, 9:58 PM 2/8/2003]

 

wow i actually managed to take out those metal sleeves on one LCA, i guess ill do one a day and ill be fine....

thanks again for the tips, lots of sledge hammer action! and bench vising

 

so prothane makes the master kit also? they're suppossed to be stiffer than ES? Where did everyone orders theirs?

 

I replaced my trailing arm bushings with Energy the other day...like everybody says, its a real pain. I should have gotten the Prothane one for the trailing arm at least so you can simply press the whole thing and not worry about saving the metal piece in the middle and transferring.

 

i guess ill pick up a prothane one possibly.. how much are they?

i might do the trailing arms this summer... if i can afford a disc conversion..