How To: Quick/Easy Civic/Integra Trailing arm bushing replacement (also ES Poly Vs. Mugen)

[JustinHoMi]

Very nice writeup! I'm gonna do it this week. I'm gonna send you a PM rmcdaniels :]

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[rmcdaniels]

Originally Posted by JustinHoMi

Very nice writeup! I'm gonna do it this week. I'm gonna send you a PM rmcdaniels :]

Just send me an AIM IM to CCIE5153, H-T messages usually don't get through to me for some reason, or they are delayed for hours or days.

[XkjeldorX]

hey i might just need these from you aswell. i took out my trailing arms and went to a shop to get them pressed in and clocked and they totally ****ed them up. they installed a bushing with the arrow pointing up instead of down. he was bitching but i got him to fix them. if he does them right im set but if not ill let u know about u renting me ur tool.
ill let u know.

[rmcdaniels]

Cool, I sent it out to a guy this week, so maybe he'll post and let us know how it went. The bushings came out of my car really easy, so hopefully his goes well too.

[kraven9]

bump...this info needs to be stickied or in the faq
rmcdaniels..i'll IM you.

[rmcdaniels]

H-T IM doesn't work right on my computer, e-mail or AIM me @ CCIE5153

[93allmotorcoupe]

Very nice, this tool wouldve been very handy to me a couple weeks ago, but a friend of mine pressed them in at his shop.

[kraven9]

Bump... I need to borrow this tool.

[ED9man]

Do you know for a fact zeroing the rear toe stops the ES snap problem?

[rmcdaniels]

Originally Posted by ED9man

Do you know for a fact zeroing the rear toe stops the ES snap problem?

I just heard that from a couple of other people in another thread when I was bitching about my ES bushings, so I definitely don't know it for a fact (maybe they weren't pushing their setup as far as I was pushing mine?). I would have tried it if I still had them in when I heard about it, but I think that there's enough reports of ES RTA bushings binding that I'm not going to try putting them back in and zeroing the toe, I'll go with sphericals before I do that.

[ED9man]

Oh well, it's only $22 down the drain, maybe I can sell them.

Any idea how long sphericals last with street/auto-x use?

[Heinz57]

The skyway tool is such a great thing.

having a propane torch and impact gun also makes the job easy (chicago weather = frozen rusted bolts.)

[Wes V]

One quick comment on "clocking" of the bushings.

You shouldn't check and replicate the angle by marking it while it's disconnected from the car. You should mark the angle while it's still in the car and on the wheels!

By doing it this way, you are compensating for a ride height that is different than stock and not inducing a constant twist on the bushing.

Here is the write-up I did quite a while back;

http://www.performanceforum.co....html

Wes V

[rmcdaniels]

Originally Posted by Wes V

One quick comment on "clocking" of the bushings.

You shouldn't check and replicate the angle by marking it while it's disconnected from the car. You should mark the angle while it's still in the car and on the wheels!

That's exactly how I said to do it in my writeup. Did you read it, or just look at the pretty pictures?

[Wes V]

Sorry!

I stand corrected.

Wes

[rmcdaniels]

Yeah, the picture is a bit misleading, but I couldn't get a camera up under there when I was making the mark with the car on the ground and the wheels on it.

[rmcdaniels]

The first guy who rented it apparently doesn't want to send it back. I told him I'd give him his deposit back after I got the tool back in good condition, but now he wants me to give him his deposit back before he sends me the tool back. It's probably not a big deal, but it makes me really uncomfortable when people try to change the deal in the middle of things, so I'll probably just let him keep it. I'll probably buy another tool when I get ready to put spherical bearings in, but it could be a while because I've got a couple of other issues to get sorted out with the car before I put sphericals in it.

[kraven9]

Originally Posted by rmcdaniels

The first guy who rented it apparently doesn't want to send it back. I told him I'd give him his deposit back after I got the tool back in good condition, but now he wants me to give him his deposit back before he sends me the tool back. It's probably not a big deal, but it makes me really uncomfortable when people try to change the deal in the middle of things, so I'll probably just let him keep it. I'll probably buy another tool when I get ready to put spherical bearings in, but it could be a while because I've got a couple of other issues to get sorted out with the car before I put sphericals in it.

That definitely sucks ass Well at least you didn't lose becuase you have his money anyway. (I told you dude probably screwed that shit up, don't kow if you remeber but I IMed you a couple times ). Anyway I ordered the tool and should get it today and i'll rent it out to anyone that needs it. (Don't mean to threadjack).

[No_Fear]

good article!

[JDM_Ej]

WTF man, who stole his tool?

[Jamison182]

Great write up, thanks

[kraven9]

Just changed my bushings just now...easy as hell. I did it in an hour or so...had to take a break after doing one side.

to rmcdaniels for the write up.
to the creator of this tool.

[Honda Lioness]

Has anyone used the extractor tool (in rmcdaniel's fine report) for very old bushings, driven in a wet climate (e.g. the Midwest or Northern U.S.)? I am skeptical it will be sufficient for my 91 Civic's never-before-changed trailing arm bushings.

I just finished changing out the bushings in three of the four lower control arms of my 91 Civic, 177k miles. For each bushing, I drilled and pressed the core ( = inner sleeve and most of the rubber) out. Then I used the technique of cutting out a roughly 1/4-inch strip from the outer sleeve. I used a lot of PB Blaster. For most of the bushings, I ended up doing a lot of cold chiseling and hammering (though I think I'm getting better at the technique). The larger diameter control arm bushings seemed to come out more readily than the smaller ones. Perhaps this is because the smaller diameter means there's more "spring force"--those smaller sleeves won't let go of the control arm wall as easily.

The TA bushings of course are much larger. To me that means they might very well come out easily.

I experimented with a junked control arm before this, but it was from a dry climate, probably with few miles on it. The bushings on this came out very easily.

So if you all who have used this Trailing Arm Extractor Tool have used it in very wet climates on old bushings, please post and let me know.

To the guy who won't return the tool: You suck eggs.

[rmcdaniels]

Mine was from NC, but the bushing sleeves had over 100,000 miles on them. I've heard there used to be a Honda dealer tool that was pretty lightweight and tended to fall apart, but the tool I had was very heavy. The sleeves came out very easily.

[Heinz57]

I live in Chicago..yes, chicago..weather gets pretty insane around here. my car is a 92 hatch. 160k miles. original trailing arm bushings. i had issues with the rear LCA bushings, like everyone else. I've changed out my suspension 3 different times. Added a front sway with teg lca's, etc.

This tool makes it pretty simple to take that rear trailing arm bushing out. They advise NOT to use an impact gun on the tool, and to use just a breaker bar or ratchet. Your arms barely get a work out...then again, it could be because i'm so damn muscular....nah..

Just Do It. Nike.


btw, I have my Rear trailing arm bushing tool, used once. for sale. good luck.

oh, btw, i forgot to add: propane torch and impact gun are your best friends. torch those frozen bolts and impact them off.