Are the 96 spec rear trailing arm bushings unique or can I pick up a set for any DC2 chassis?
How do people like the hardrace units?

 

Just replace them with OEM ones and upgrade the front compliance bushings from Kingpin Machine, a lot better upgrade with a noticeable change.

 

The Hardrace units have been known to be inconsistent in terms of quality. OEM is fine now that Honda has revised the rubber compound.

 

Do your kingpin compliance bushings clunk or make any noise? I have the kiwi pci stuff and they are very noisy.

 

Not from what I can tell, I don't have a whole lot of suspension movement either. And my friend has them on his DC2 that is street driven and never notice any odd noises.
Plus I don't think Kiwi offers the spherical compliance bushings for the EG/DC...

 

Please elaborate from personal experience.

 

They're a completely different level of quality in both materials, bearing selection, and assembly. Very much apples and oranges. Go to his site and take a look at the attention to detail; it'll blow you away.

 

Isn't a set of spherical compliance bushings a bit overkill for street use? I don't want to wreck the road manners too much.
I do need the rear trailing arm bushings bad though. Do I go with the OEM replacements? Anyone have part numbers for the "new rubber"?

 

No particularly... I ran Kingpin Radius Rod bearings in my EF street car. No rattles or funkiness with them. I'd have them on my ITR but class rules basically limit me to OE style rubber.

For the rear stuff, yeah, I'd go with OE. I'm pretty sure all the bushings that are floating around out there are the higher durometer stuff at this point. IIRC, the change over was 8-10 years ago.

 

Thanks!

 

He wrote me a small writeup on the quality and attention to detail that he puts into kingpin parts but I was already ordering a entire suspension setup from kiwi so I just did the comp bushing as well. Oh well car handles very well just makes noise, but it's a racecar so I will wait till they break and replace with kingpin.

 

LMK if want oem bushings the dc2 ones are about 95 for pair, but you can use CRV ones and theyre about $56 for the pair

 

Nice ^^^. Didn't realize that.

 

My PCI's did initially...I found that over-tightening caused them to creak/pop. My solution was to loctite the compliance bushing nut and tighten it while the suspension was being cycled. I tightened it until the compliance bushings creaked, then backed it off a bit until they stopped making noise. Seemed to work like a charm. Seven months of daily driving later and no creaking to speak of. I too have all of the kiwi and pci stuff. I'm pretty happy with it, but will upgrade to kingpin parts as it wears out.

 

Isn't there a spherical bearing rear trailing arm bushing?

I'd go with that.

 

Yes sir when backing off the nut the noise disappears when the arm is cycled. Kinda sketchy for a high hp track car to run loosened suspension nuts knowingly. I just had a uca bolt break at mosport and i nearly **** my pants. It creaks because racecar i guess.

 

I dunno. I have yet to hear from someone who's #1- swapped out just the RTA to spherical and done back to back testing & #2- has enough experience/background/consistency to isolate what that one part is doing. Most of the time it's "I swapped everything to spherical and now the car's awesome" or "I changed this one part and the car is completely transformed [but I don't have a ton of experience]".

On my EF's, I've seen the biggest improvement in braking stability by going to spherical radius rod bearings (i.e. compliance bearings) BUT I haven't tried the spherical RTA so...

Because Cheap Parts.

Guessing the creaking is from bearing stiction/dryness and that's likely due to the quality of the parts. With the shocks/spring off the car and a full Kingpin front spherical setup, you can move the suspension though it's full stroke easily by hand. Absolutely amazing parts from Chris.

 

So the Kingpin compliance bushings need maintenance? If so what is entailed and at what frequency?

 

All the creaking and complaints above are about PCI's spherical stuff, not Kingpin.

If you lived in the NE and were driving the car in snow/salt constantly then yeah... going with a spherical bearing probably isn't the best choice. For CA (or where I am in FL), they're a zero maintenance item. The original prototype bearings that Chris put together are 3 or 4 race seasons old and still have zero play/noise. In fact, I don't know anyone who's had one of his bearings wear out... and there are a ton of the super-fast, gazillion HP, drag guys running his parts.

 

hmm, I should go find my old compliance bushings that I replaced and send them in as cores to have a set of kingpin machine ones

 

I put the CRV rubber version in the back of my 89 CRX Si and it made a night & day difference in braking stability. The old ones were literally torn apart and, and the unrestricted movement of the bushing caused the car to squat when applying the brakes (cause the trailing arms would slightly rotate or something. They also creaked like nobodys business.

For removeal & install you might be able to get away with a simple 2 lb brass hammer from harborfreight. That worked easily on one of my arms. For the other, it wasn't stamped very well from the factory which kept the bushing from pounding into the hole. I noticed on the old bushing that came out of it, it had been forced into a cone shape by the poor stamping quality of that trailing arm. I had to use a 12 ton press to get the bushing started by gently walking it in. Then I beat the $h!t out of it with the brass hammer until it was at the correct depth. The 12 ton press gave up and hit the relief valve shortly after the bushing finally started into the hole straight.

 

What is the best procedure to "clock" the rear trailing arm bushing if don't trust the person who put in the last set?
I am working through the suspension on this car that someone lowered and did a poor job of properly setting car up. I am afraid they half assed the trailing arm bushings.
When I go to put the new ones in how do I set them up for my car the right way?

 

Scribe/mark horizontal on the RTA with the car at regular ride height. Line up the bushing shaft with the scribed mark. Easy peasy.

 

Oh wow that is easy thanks! I didnt realize they were completely horizontal at ride height. In that case these are off lol. Is there a "standard" measurement of how far in/out the bushing should be?

 

I'm not saying that your RTA's are horizontal... saying to scribe horizontal/level on them with the car sitting on the ground. That horizontal line on the RTA is where you want to line up the new RTA's. This will leave the bushing "un-twisted" when the car is sitting on the ground.