ChrisGSR

Not strictly "Engine Tech", but HA-net doesn't have a category for "Brake and Suspension Tech". And the notes here should apply to almost every Honda/Acura product.

I posted a few weeks ago that I was going all Prothane under the car. Well, I messed that up from the start -- I misread the Web page that I was ordering from. Thought it was a Prothane master kit. Instead it's an Energy Suspension master kit.

No real matter, I'm happy with either vendor.

What brought this on was a regular click from the front suspension on both sides of my GS-R. I figured it was worn CV joints, but it didn't make the clicks while turning. Got under and checked visually. Found that the shock-to-lower-control-arm bushings were cracked badly on both sides.

So last week I got the ES master kit and put it on.

Impressions of the ES kit: damn, there are a lot of parts in it! The only things that aren't in it are rear upper LCA bushings, and swaybar to chassis u-bracket bushings. ES does sell these as separate kits at a fair price.

On this round I decided to install only the front LCA bushings (one each of shock and arm base on each LCA) and the pivot arm bushings (since to get to them the LCA has to come out). Total of six things to press.

I thought I would leave the stock ball joint boots, even though there are new ones in the kit. Stock seemed fine.

Removing the LCA and pivot arm turns out to be a huge bear of a job. Not because of any stuck bolts, although I always figure on finding some of those on a suspension task. Everything actually broke open at reasonable torque. A pleasant surprise.

What was effed up was the ball joint separation. I know of three ways to do this: tension the joint in the direction of separation and hit the eye around it with a BFH; use a puller; use a pickle fork.

I hate pullers and forks, so I wasted about six or seven hours getting the ball joint under tension (jack under the knuckle to raise it -- the damper arm should press down on the LCA and make the ball joint want to separate). Lots of hammering. Lots of cursing. Tried penetrating oil, heat -- nada.

OK, puller time. I had to go and buy a two-arm puller. Thought I would buy a pickle fork set at the same time just in case -- nope, they were out.

Another six hours of fruitless bother. Why so hard? Well, I have used pullers before. What I don't like about them is the way that they can bend studs and mess up threads. I went and got a metric nut of the right size (don't reverse the castle nut, it can crack at the crenellations) to protect the threads.

Note that this hack doesn't prevent stud bending. Anyway, number one, if the car is only on jackstands, there isn't a lot of clearance under it to get the puller in place! I had to stop, unjack and fuss about to get more clearance.

Then when I got that, I find out that Honda has rounded off the shoulder of the LCA eye where it meets the ball joint! What fun. How thoughtful. Can I kill a Honda engineer with a puller? Send me one and I'll try.

Anyway, the puller arms would just not hold on the rounded shoulder. No way. You might be able to cut a U shape out of a heavy washer and slip it in. I figured I'd wasted enough time already.

So, hammer doesn't work, puller doesn't work. Time for a fork. I hate pickle forks as a crude, white-trash, junkyard tool. They tear up boots and they can damage the inside of the ball joint. And I didn't have a fork set, so it's back to the tool store again, more time, more money, more wasted gas -- thanks bunches, Honda! Boy, do I love Honda.

Anyway, the fork propelled by the impact of the BFH did the job. In about two seconds. Note to self: 7 hours ineffective versus 6 hours ineffective versus 2 seconds effective. Use a damn fork right away next time.

Once the arms were off the car I took stock. Shock bushings trashed on both sides. Base bushings okay, but looking aged. Pivot arm bushings looked GREAT. Probably not even necessary to replace them. They're big and beefy and up in there away from the road hazards. Decided to do them anyway.

Go to closest machine shop to have old bushings pressed out. "Duh, I don't know, I only work on Camaros, I can't take this job." Uh, OK, pal, I don't want a Chevy moron on the case anyway. He might accidentally try to press in a junk GM bushing or something.

Next closest machine shop. Sure thing, no problem, $60 for the six-set to press old out, and press new in.

$60! Damn, I should have just paid a pro wrench. That's effing nuts. But I'm in a hurry to get to a friend's wedding, and I'm in the creek now with the arms off the car, so I leave the arms for a few hours. I tell him I'll take the arms home to clean up when the old bushings are pressed out, then come back later to put the new ones in.

He does a good job on removal. Bushing bores are clean, no signs of rust. But plenty of rust on the eye edges surrounding.

I actually spent an entire weekend cleaning up with naval jelly. The paint is tough stuff, but rust has come in from the edges and compromised it from below. Much of the paint that looks OK is chippy and bad underneath and needs to come off.

Important note here: the new ES urethane bushings have a wide lip on them, which means that they cover an area that the stock bushings do not. That area had lots of rusted paint on mine. I got all the rust off and left a smooth, sanded, greased surface for contact. I would bet that some of the complaints about squealing urethanes come from guys who have had their new bushings put in without a good cleaning job. Urethane rubbing on flaked paint and rust makes a lot of noise, I figure.

Note also that the bushing bores start to rust FAST, in only a few hours, once the old shells are pressed out. Grease them stat.

So it took most of a weekend of hard labor to get the arms clean, but worth it, I think. I actually then found that the two-piece replacement bushings for the LCA can be popped in by hand into a greased bushing bore. Sweet! Don't pay a shop for that.

I did have to take the pivot arm bushings back to the shop. I think a small home press would do the job instead. They popped right in after being well greased. Not much pressure required.

The grease that ES ships comes in both tubs and tubes. They ship a lot, and you should use a lot. Couple of things, though. This is maybe the stickiest grease I have ever seen. You will want gloves, and you will want citric cleaner to get the stuff off of you. Soap and water and Gunk and the like are *not* going to do this job. The grease just laughs.

I greased fanatically, everywhere, and used synthetic grease to lube the metal-to-metal contacts (some greases apparently eat urethane, so I used the supplied ES grease in the urethane-to-metal areas).

I also cleaned and repacked the ball joints with synthetic grease.

The ball joint boots were ripped from the use of the pickle fork. Did I mention how much I love Honda? But when I examined them off the car, I saw that they should be replaced anyway. They're pretty thin rubber and were getting oxidized. I could tear them with finger strength, and even though I have strong fingers, that means it's time.

The new urethane boots will just have to live with contact with the synth grease. I think the ES grease is too heavy for that joint, and I don't know what its melting point is. Since the ball is right next to the brake, it gets HOT, and I want something with a known high temp spec to it.

I then found that the threads on one of the studs had been torn up by the arm as it was forced off by the pickle fork. Lovely. Fabulous. Honda. What more can I say?

There is also an internal brass collar on the ball joint that helps hold the stock boots on. On both sides, the fork had whanged this collar to where it would no longer work with stock boots. My advice: if you have to use a fork, get urethane boots that don't require the collar to be intact and usable, 'cause it won't be. The ES boots don't clip around the collar and look fine.

I was able with only about two hours' work (grrrrrrr) to chase and retap the threads on the damaged stud and get the arm back on.

Some small trouble getting the damper fork lined up with the bolt holes on the LCA on one side. It was very tight for some reason. The other side was less trouble.

Rebolted everything to proper book torque and drove.

Clicking noises are totally gone. There are absolutely no bushing squeaks. There is more slight sound of body flex, as everything has tightened up in front. I can live with that.

The car itself feels much more dialed-in, especially during turning transients and over bumps. Also slightly harsher, but not yet to the point of being objectionable.

One of my big complaints about the stock GSR suspension is that it is and was *too* compliant and soft. The urethane is a big step towards curing that, without going to a rocklike race car ride.

When you combine these good things with the fact that urethane should last with no problems for the life of the car, even if that life is exceptionally long, this looks like a great deal. I'm happy with ES's product.

What I am not happy with is having to jump through flaming hoops of technical difficulty to install them. Once again (as with the timing belt replacement) this is a routine maintenance job that should be bone-simple and dirt-cheap -- but which is a lot harder and longer and more expensive because Honda doesn't think much about maintenance issues when it engineers vehicles.

Take the puller failure. If you were asked to design a control arm, and asked as part of the design to make it simple to remove for servicing, wouldn't you add niches for puller arm tabs? It's a cast part, so it's not like there's added machining expense.

Anyway, I'll follow up in a few thousand, and I'll put on a few more of the parts that don't require heavy labor, like the transmission bushings.

--

1stGenCRXer

I had similar experiences with my Poly bushing install. On the plus side though, if you need to replace the bushings again down the road, the poly is much easier to remove than the stock stuff, so your job time will be down significantly. I'll likely never go back to rubber bushings.

ChrisGSR

Following up now that I have some hours of serious road time on the bushings.

Still recommended. I do have one warning: slow down! Or at least watch for cops. My shotgun seat passenger commented that I was driving a full twenty-over instead of ten, on one curvy road that we frequently take.

I did not even notice. The car just feels that much more substantially planted and solid and pointable. Even at straight-line freeway speeds, it feels more competent than before. I am very impressed.

Note: I also installed one of the two transmission bushings that came in the kit. It isn't that perceptible to me in over-the-road live shifts, but it does seem to have reduced the can't-find-reverse problem that sometimes shows up in cold Integras. I'll do the other one and see if I notice more.

Oh, still no squeaks, even on really serious speed bumps and the like.

Daniel

Excellent write up! I'm sure our members will find this very informative. Did you possibly take any pictures of the installation as well?

ChrisGSR

No, sorry. I usually use the digital camera while I work so that I can see where everything was originally. But it was out of town with my SO that week.

Now that the bushings are on, there's not much to see. They are black, although I think I would have preferred red. Not for show, but because it's easier to visually check out the condition of the bushing with the higher contrast of red.

I'll take photos when I do the front upper control arms and do the rear stuff. The *big* trailing arm bushings in back look like they're trashed. And those aren't in the master kit, either. Have to put in another order first...

TypeSH

use a pitman arm puller to pop the lower ball joint out.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=36861

i used this, ripped the first boot I used because I didn't know how to use it, but got it right for the next time i used it. You will need some sort of small metal plate as the end of the puller that pushes is pointed and will ruin the end of the ball joint unless you have something to spread the force (a small metal plate w/ a hole in it).

cattracks

ChrisGSR
After the time on the car, how are the bushings doing? Any special wear? Problems?

HatchVX

I have the full ES kit on mine. Only thing that is rubber is my rear sway bar D bushings. U will be very happy once u get the full kit in. I love it to death, when i ride or drive a car with out it, they feel so squishy.

Provocateur

Great write up. I am having the same metallic rubbing on my car and I have replaced the axle thinking it was a CV joint, but it was still there. I will definitely think about this.