Hey guys,

Well I'm knee deep in my energy suspension bushing replacement, trying to get the rear control arm bushings in and it's becoming a nightmare.

I have pressed both bushings halfs in but any attempt to press in the metal sleeve leaves one bulging out by 1/4". The sleeve is going through both bushings and not catching. Any ideas?

I'm about to pull both halfs out and hollow them out a little. I'm just so damned frustrated

 

Make sure to tap the thin steel lining out of the rear control arm before inserting the bushing. Otherwise they won't fit.

 

That was exactly it. I must have been out in the garage for far too long today.

 

you are a brave man to attempt this. We have done two full energy suspension bushing kits, and i will NEVER do another!

 

Hondaman....If not urethane replacements what other choices are there, or are you just down on the Energy Suspension Kit. I'm trying to decide what to replace my really worn rubber stuff with delrin or urethane. I have never driven a car with the delrin bushings so don't know how they ride or how much vibration gets transferred.

Anybody have some helpful experiences here?

 

Im sorry,


What i meant was, its an absolute nightmare! There are too many bushings(and surrounding metal) that end up having to be cut off. That takes ALOT of time and isnt very profitable! The kits are top notch!

poly pwnd rubber long ago!

 

I agree with you 100%. I just installed a master bushing kit on a 1st gen, every single component was a fight. You can't charge someone 20 hours of labor for installation of $150 in parts. You could, but the customer wont like it and I just wouldn't feel right about it.

 

You guys are dead on taking 20 hours to install $150 in parts. Now that I know all the stupid trick I could do it again in an afternoon (My own 12 ton press helps). But yeah cutting all the old bushings out with a drill bit sucks ***.

I'm almost done on the rear end of my car after resolving yesterdays stupidity I hit the rear subframe mounts and got one out, still gotta hammer the other side out.

Another Potential PIA is replacing the rear wheel bearings like I did yesterday.
I didn't even use my press for these, I simply removed the seal and retaining clip. Placed the bearing carriers in my powdercoat oven at 400 Degrees for an hour. Pulled them out of the oven and the bearings fell out (one almost hitting my foot), cleaned them up a little, reheated and dropped the new ones in.