Control Arm Bushing Swap Preparations
 

As the title states I am looking for any insight as to what tools I need to do this swap and any tips or tricks to help it go smoothly. I am swapping out my 11 year old bushings for a full set of Energy Suspension poly bushings. I will be tackling this project next weekend, so I'm trying to be proactive and leave some time to gather tools and do research before I do the deed.

Anyway, if you have any input on tools or advice that you can give me to help me avoid problems, please let me know. An important piece of info is that I do not have access to a press and will be doing all the work in my garage over the span of (hopefully) two days :fingerscrossed: . My friend that works at a local dealership quoted me 1 hour of labor per arm, so that is out of the question.

The tools I have or can get from autozone are: Propane torch (for the lowers), ball joint separator, upper control arm bushing remover, and the usual sockets, ratchets, torque wrench, and other tools. Here's the link to the bushing remover from Autozone: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...-Tool/_/N-26rb

The reason I am posting on here is because I feel like my thread would just get lost and ignored in the Suspension & Brakes sub. Plus I feel as though a lot of you have done this swap before and would be able to give slightly more helpful advice.

You almost need a press for sure. If honda will do it for 1 hr at 120 and hour thats not bad considering you will have to press some out. Even if you burn out the old material you will still have to remove the inner ring with either a air chisel or something. Putting them in is easy but even the front compliance bushing needs to get pushed in

Maybe remove all the arms and bring it to a machine shop and let them do it?

If you look at some arms its tricky to get it done. I was thinking of making a tool to do it but since my car has to be down i decided to pass

if i could do it all over i'd just skip all the bushings save maybe the offset upper arms from GTMotoring and doing fresh compliance bushings. i think the rest were a waste of time, sweat, and money.

you will need a press to or a very strong impact to get the bushings out. turning a socket or wrench to press out the bushing is doing it the wrong way it will work but you're killing yourself to do it.

Hmm okay, would this work? http://www.harborfreight.com/6-ton-a...ress-1666.html
I'm not too worried about reliability as long as it can get me through this job.

that would work so long as you have the correct dies to press them out and the cups to hold the arm up

For the Energy Suspension bushings, I believe only the uppers require the outer shell to be removed(pressed out). You can use the trick Rob did using a washer, sleeve and threaded rod to press it out. Burning out the other bushings is a bitch. It'll be good to have a file to get rid of the last bit of rubber that's left behind in the metal sleeve.

Just a heads up, you may need a sawzall to cut the bolts thru the compliance bushings (they almost always seize). The bolts weren't properly lubricated with antisieze at the factory, which causes this problem. Use a lot of PBlaster and see if you get lucky. When I did all my bushings earlier this year, I ordered all the cam bolts in advance (which took 2 weeks to arrive). Luckily none of mine were seized and still have the parts in the original packaging. If you end up needing these in short order, send me a PM.

Not a fun job but it can easily be done without a press. If I remember correctly and assuming you have the "current" version of energy bushings, you only need to remove the bushing sleeves from the upper a-arms and one in the rear lower a-arm. You need to retain the inner sleeves for everything els. To remove without a press: burn the inner sleeve and bushing out, cut a slit in the inner sleeve (being careful not to cut past the sleeve and into the a-arm itself) using a hand saw or sawzall, then tap out the sleeve with a chisel/screwdriver. It's very easy and takes little time. You will need a bench vise (or something similar) to press some of the new bushings in.

Another tip: One of the rear lower a-arm bushings is composed of four pieces (refer to the energy instructions for details). After initially burning the bushing, use a ball joint fork and hammer to remove the first two inner sleeves. I initially tried using a crowbar, chisel, screwdriver, etc. to "pry" it out, like the instructions state; that was a waste of time.

And as was said before, the caster bolts are infamous for seizing. I tried using heat, penetration fluid, and an impact gun... nothing worked. Ended up purchasing two new caster sleeves and cut the old ones out.

Have fun! :LOL:

Use a press. A reasonably cheap way to get dies is to use sockets and sand (use a bench sander) them down to the proper size. Took me a few hours for all of them and was easy.

I have a set of compliance bolts and eccentric washers if anyone wants to buy them. They are new from honda

Is there any risk of knocking out the other sleeves when using the chiseling approach? Or are they in there pretty well?