How to swap your suspension bushes. Rear trailing arm, Front & Rear LCA.

[mocchi]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

Aim: Swap bushes and to get more PQ points. hehe.

Required: Hardrace Press , goggles, vernier caliper, various sockets, ingenuity, & internet.

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Rear Trailing Arm (RTA) Bushes.
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Supporting Video:


Aim: replace rooted RTA bushes.



1. Jack up car and put on jack stands.




2. Remove wheels

3. Detach brake hose. You can choose to detach brake line on caliper or from chassis (hard brake line). I detached the hard-to-soft brake line so i didn't have to undo 2x10mm brake line bracket on trailing arm. I then wrapped hard line with plumbers teflon tape so it wont drip plenty brake fluid.




4. Undo all the bolts that connects RTA to chassis/LCA:

• Rear LCA to RTA bolt.
  

• Rear Upper Arm to RTA bolt
  

• RTA Bushes to Chassis bolts
  

• Compensator arm to Chassis / RTA to Compensator arm bolt.
  

You can choose to undo either bolt, I removed the Compensator arm to chassis bolt because it's easier. I'll need wheel alignment later.


5. Now that the RTA is off, make note of 'LWR' position and bush orientation. LWR should point to the ground. LWR side bush is thicker.










6. Once you know the layout, hammer out the old bush. There is a 'long' and 'short' side on the bush, long goes inside (behind RTA/LCA) and short goes outside (to wheels). Need to hammer from behind RTA.



7. Once it's out, orient your new bush and sit it tight by tapping 'em lightly on RTA. Push new bush in from outside so that the long side of bush goes behind RTA/LCA.



**Once you done swapping the bushes, I had hard time putting RTA back in the car.
I find it easier to bolt in (loosely in the following order:

1. RTA to LCA
2. RTA Bush to Chassis
3. Compensator arm
4. Upper arm to RTA

Don't tighten them until all is connected, you will have hard time lining up bolt holes if you do.

Good luck!

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Rear Lower Control Arm Bushes. ITR LCA
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Steps:
1. Take out your rear lca and get the rear lca bush kit. Assess.



2. Identify which side is the small side and which is the big side.
Take note how it sits before you push the bush out.













3. Push the bush using your socket on the outer bush metal sleeve. Big side facing down, press from Small side. If you push the bush on the inner sleeve, the rubber just gonna flex until you rip it.
Sometimes it might stuck, use wd-40 to lubricate before pressing. Let it soak for a while.



4. Clean the inside lining of your RLCA, clean that wd-40 leftover. I need to strip the paint and repaint it. arr.

5. Push the bush back in, Small side goes in to the Big side.



6. Done. Easy peasy if you got a press, especially a hardrace press.




Other comments:
You should wear goggles. metal can break and when they break, sometimes metal shards will fly off.
You don't want metal shards in your eye.

[beeza]

Good one.

What are those presses worth?

[mocchi]

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Front LCA bushes.
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Continuing from Rear LCA bushes, now we swap front LCA (flca) ones. As always, I must have my manual ready.



1. Take off wheels, then jack up the car high enough for you to comfortably wigglez under the car.

2. Use sharp nosed pliers to remove cotter pin on lower ball joint (lbj) that connects flca to knuckle.

3. 17mm socket to remove the lbj castle nut. once loose, dont completely remove them but just keep them loose. reason is so that when you pop the lbj, it wont go smacking stuff when it breaks loose (touch wood).

4. Once the lbj is loose, undo the front sway bar(fsb) nut. undo the lower one. will need to use 12mm spanner and 12mm rachet/breaker bar. kinda like when you do tie rod ends. use 12mm spanner on the middle hex part of fsb bushes to hold it down when you undo lower nut.

unlike ek fsb nuts, you dont use allen key in eg.

5. Remove the 19mm nut holding down the compliance bushing to flca. make note of washer position.

6. Undo the 3 big fat bolts holding compliance bushing to chassis.




7. Undo all the bolts holding flca.




8. Remove flca. finally we getting down to bushes business. yearr!! clean that 15yrs worth of dirt and grime.




9. Swap the compliance bushing to new Hardrace item. shiny. position washers in correct order, they are different size.




10. Sort out the bushes and use the 27mm socket to push out smaller bush, 30mm socket for bigger end bush.






11. I needed something to act as a 'flat base', so i used wheel bearing inner race as i have some used bearings. this 'flat base' will allow me to push out the bush while keeping flca level. the magnet act as my 'third hand' because i need the inner race to stay at a fixed spot on the flca. stole the trick from welders using magnets hehehe.






12. Time for some action. BAM!



BAM!



BAM!




13. Sand down the inside part of flca, theres some rust there. i sanded it abit with 400 grit to make 'em nice and smooth. push new bush back in. ***make sure they go flush on the flat area of flca***





14. More action! BAM!



BAM!



BAM!



BAM!



BAM!



DONE.





Looks easy, but it took me whole day to do all this. i had to improvise on the tools and stuff, having a press is definitely worth the money. swapping out bushes is very straight forward so that is why there are more pics than words. don't spend 500 bones to pay your mechanic to swap them bushes. DIY it!


Let me know if i missed something, i probably did. enjoy ozhonda.

[beeza]

Oh geez,that's quite resonable.

Well worth it then!!

I'm looking at paying Honda $120+ to install front LCA bushes,I really got no other option...my mechanic cant press them out,need that tool.

[ajbm]

well done mocchi, i'm planning to do my bushes soon...
Can you tell us about Hardrace bushes compared to OEM?
Thanks!

[beeza]

Rep this man,that's some good sh!t!

[pat88c]

nice DIY

Look like Hardrace bush kit from JDM Yard

[mocchi]

they are hardrace bushings haha.
but i bought them from ebay.

[hitoriko]

would thouse bushes suit Blox LCAs? because i've heard that the blox ones arent that great

[mocchi]

Front LCA bushes swap added!

[RtN]

make a business from it lolol.. send mocchi your LCAs everyone :P

[grifty]

how much tonne is your press?