Whats up guys…!!
Has anyone installed this kit? How difficult its? Any special tools were used?
Thanks for any advice/feedback…
It’s somewhat of a pain in the ass & a long process. The only “special” tool I can think of was having to go to Home Depot for a propane torch. I had access to a 30 ton press so I figured that would be the best way of gettin the old bushings out, but it wasn’t. Me & my buddy almost bent my front LCA because the old bushing wouldn’t budge. The torch worked like a charm burning them out. Also, I did have an air hammer which helped taking out the sleeve that remained once the rubber burned. The press did turn out to be useful for pressing in some of the bushings, I think it was the front upper control arm bushings. The power steering bushings were difficult to reach, but with a little manuevering, they went in as well. That’s all I can remember off the top of my head with the install. For a first timer installing this kit, expect to spend at least about 7 hours or so with everything. Best of luck!
The rear trailing arm bushings were a beast. A weird thing that I used out of probably sheer desperation. But it worked was a kitchen knife. No joke get a steak knife and start hacking away it cuts the old rubber away like butter. I tried other ways gasoline and fire but that almost ended in me setting my cousin’s house on fire. (NEVER AGAIN) Set yourself alot of time. I did it on my civic and did a set of bushings once a week Trailing arms took about 7 hours alone. (Before I found my little trick) Alone I don’t think it’s possible to do a whole car in a day. IMO. Maybe if you’ve done it a bunch of times.
Trailing arm bushings don’t come in the master kit, so I haven’t gotten around to replacing those yet. I have the Snap On specialty tool for those, but I’m sure it’ll still prove to be a mission. Pretty funny that you almost set the house on fire LOL. With the burning of the bushings, I purchased the small propane tank and just left it on burning away at the bushing for a while. I ended up propping the part up on the jack with some zip ties and pointing the torch straight at the bushing. While it burned, I just worked on removing another part or putting another part back on. We split the work up into 2 days, but it could have been done in one day if you don’t mind working long & hard.
As far as the desperation, I feel you on that cause at the early stages I was trying to kill the bushing with the air hammer but it kept getting jammed in the rubber.
That’s odd the trailing arm bushings came in my Master Kit. It’s even in their list for Civic’s kit. Maybe it’s missing on the integra’s kit. I’m dreading doint this to the integra but this is the last time I do it.
Thanks for sharing ur feedback guys, guess i’ll have a long weekend to get this done, i’ve been serching and some guy said that the tie rods bushings are bad its that true? thanks
The tie rod bushings weren’t so bad. remember to be very careful when you pop the tie rod off of the old bushing I mushroomed the part were the bolt goes on because I’m an idiot and didn’t think it could do that. Had to buy a whole new tie rod. The idea here is patience and care are definitely needed. You can attempt to get it done in one day. But realistically this is something you have to take your time on the more you rush the more stuff you break. Good Luck don’t forget the steak knife.
Yeah Im gonna put my new FF1 coilovers and bushing this weekend…yeah def i wont forget the kitchen knife…LOL
Agreed, that you shouldn’t rush with this project. Also, might wanna check out other components & replace as necessary. I took advantage & replaced my outter tie rods, axles (which ended up being cheap aftermarket & tearing), etc…
I put bushings in using only a torch,hacksaw,hammer,chisel and a normal vise. You burn out the old bushings and just push it out with the chisel. Then I got creative on how I was going to remove the old bushing sleeve. What you do is put the part in a vise and take the blade off of the hacksaw and insert the blade through the hole where the old bushings was and then attach the blade back to the hacksaw handle and cut through the sleeve. It’s pretty thin so it goes quick. Then I used the chisel and hit between the sleeve and the main part right next to where you cut and the sleeve will curl up a little and shrink and it should come right out. I hope you understand what I am talking about. If not then I can try to tell you again. I did it in my garage at home with just those tools. The only real hard part was to get the part to stay in the vise when I was whacking it with the hammer and chisel. Hope that helps. Have done two cars that way without an issue.
yeah i watched a video on youtube from a guy that did the same thing…came out pretty easy the sleeves from the video, lets see how it goes for me.
Pretty genius right there. I paid a repair shop 10 bucks per bushing to press them out.
wow. Damn that’s pricey. I have a local honda tech that installs all of the kit for $150.
thats a hell of a deal. how long did he take?
one of the main things thats keeping me on the fence about this kit is the fact that im not sure what kind of problems im going to face when installing all the bushings and in the process of installing them what im going to break…
Be prepared for seized and rusted bolts. Examine everything before you take it apart and have replacement hardware ready. Otherwise your car will be down for longer than you expect.
He usually got it done in a day. most of my friends were too lazy to do it so they had him do it. Only reason I know, I did mine myself. And am still to cheap to save myself the heartache once again. lol.
I’m not aware of any tie rod “bushing”. I know the kit comes with tie rod end boots, but I didn’t use them as I just replaced the entire tie rod end, which came complete with new boots installed.
If you’re talking about difficulty in separating the tie rod end from the knuckle, then the solution for that is to rent the specialty tools from an auto parts store (i.e. Autozone or equivalent).
After that, I used the same method as fgo4 (I’ve seen it described on here and on other sites as well). As others have already mentioned, the biggest issue is always when a bolt is siezed in the inner bushing sleeve. If the inner sleeve turns with the bolt, then typically the only solution is to cut through the bolt itself, though I have heard that using an impact gun can help break it free. I don’t have an impact gun, so hand tools were the only option. The items that gave me trouble were the bolts that connect the lower control arms to the subframe.
On the rear control arms I was able to break the captured nut loose from the subframe with my breaker bar first (the nut is tack welded so it doesn’t turn freely when torquing the bolt), then knock the bolt out of the sleeve with a hammer and punch. However, this isn’t really possible on the front, as I couldn’t access the nut. In the end I had to cut through the bolt on both sides of the control arm. A good hacksaw is a must, but a reciprocating saw would be better.
This is the same method I used to do mine and it’s by far the best.
I put this kit on my Db1 and it was a little bit difficult but would have been easier with impacts and a press. Me and my buddy used a dremel tool and razor blades to get the rubber out then used a chisel to get the sleeves loose. To press the bushings/sleeves in and out we just used a normal vice and two bigger C clamps the process took a couple nights worth of work but the difference when you drive is so worth it. It stiffens up the chassis so much. And my integra kit didn’t come with trailing arm bushings but they were pretty inexpensive through energy suspension. I think the hardest part was the front and rear lca bushings, the sleeves were way stubborn. I’ll definitely be putting this kit on all my toys in the future.
i did almost the same thing to remove the bushings but instead used a small holesaw to remove most of the rubber then used a sawzall to cut the outer sleeve not a hacksaw …work smarter not harder
i got it down to about 4-5 hours for the complete kit and an alignment
but thats with a lift and air tools