Me again with my '88 Civic project. This question concerns replacement of the bushings - mainly, the two large trailing arm bushings. These were badly cracked (one was coming apart) and will obviously need replacement, but it's clear that will not be an easy job. Removing the old ones doesn't look to hard - I removed the first quite easily by drilling through and cutting away at it, then using acetone to help peel off the last bits of rubber from the collar in which it was housed. But then there's the question of installing the replacement, starting with - what type. Factory original replacements are now available for these Hondas, but these are made from the same old inferior rubber as the previous ones. Polyurethane replacements are also available, but these have a reputation for coupling more vibration to the chassis. Then there's an interesting, albeit very expensive option, as seen here:
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These polyester bushings are supposed to be softer than Polyurethane, but just as durable. If I can save enough money, this is the way I'd like to go, but I want to be sure these things will actually fit. Which brings me to my next question. In the above auction, it says the OD is either 80 or 85mm. Also, you can see that the bushing in the auction has a metal collar (sleeve?) around it. With the old bushings, that collar does measure 80mm but it appears to be permanently bonded to the arm - is there supposed to be some way to remove it? As for the problem of installing the new bushing, I notice that a tool is available for this:
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|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318 This looks like little more than a glorified two-jaw puller; since I can't afford it, I'm going to try and build a similar device of my own from various pieces of scrap iron. I'm clearly going to need some help with this stuff, so any advice would be much appreciated. And please don't tell me to just replace the entire arm, as per Honda specs - these arms cost over $400 apiece.