has anyone installed polyurethane bushings themselves?

i can't seem to get any straight answers from energy suspension. i want to replace the bushings in the front and rear lower trailing arms. do you install the bushings as is or do you have to burn out the old rubber and reuse the metal casings from the old bushings?

any other hints as to how to do this job cheaply and easily would be appreciated.

from what ive seen/read you need new arms or you need to get the old bushings pressed in by a shop. ive never done it tho.

Well you only have rear trailing arms, but I believe you can press the bushing out, but I'm also wondering the same thing as you. Energy Suspension states you must use all your old metal parts, does that mean the bracket that runs through it?

I don't know why people don't replace these because I have yet to see a Honda come in work with a good trailing arm bushing.

From what I was reading at the parts store about energy's bushings, you have to have the old ones pressed out of the trailing arms, then cut the rubber out of them, press the urethane into the metal sleeve, (glue) the center metal "pin" into the urethane, then have the whole assembly pressed back in.

This is what I understood of it.. hence the reason I haven't done anything with them yet myself.. seems like too much of a pain in the ass for a car that isn't running yet.

I have replaced all my bushings with poly ones. I had them pressed out @ a shop, the good thing is the Energy Suspension ones don't need to be pressed in. The Energy trailing arm bushings do not include the outer sleeve and center pin, the Prothane one is a complete set, press the old one out and the new one in. Energy is cheaper, but it was a pain to torch out the old rubber. Prothane is also the only company that makes the rear upper control arm bushings. I have a mix of Energy and Prothane. Also if you have a rear disc from an Integ you need the Integ bushings, the ones for the CRX rear discs are smaller; found out the hard way. It is possible to pop them out with an impact hammer, just have to be carfull not to ding up the arms.

I used the Energy suspension master kit that had everything except the rear trailing arm bushings they were a seperate purchase at like $25.

When my Dad and I replaced my trailing arm bushing we didn't bother burning it out. It's a huge waste of fuel and a stinky, smokey mess. We used a sawzall (with an agressive wood cutting blade) to cut the pin out and continued to use the sawzall to cut most of the rubber out. We then used a grinder with a wire wheel and removed the remaining rubber. All you have is rubber powder to vacuum up, avoid getting a black lung, and it came out great. As for the rest of the bushings it was just a matter of repeating the above process as much as possible. For the smaller bushings we just used a small (very sharp!) chisel to cut around the bushing, used the sawzall again with a metal cutting blade to slowy cut through the shell and avoid cutting into the control arm, we then hammered a small chisel or pointed punch between the bushing shell and control arm and the shells just fall out. (My included instructions did not mention reusing the bushing shells for the lower control arms.) I'd recommend bringing the parts to a garage to have them pressed in if you don't have access to a press of your own. GL

Push em, burn em what everver you need to do to get them out. Save the metal parts and use what you need of them, you can push the new bushing in with clamps or a vise, just make sure contact surfaces are clean and to use that gorellia snot greese that you get with the urethane bushings.
These guys have helped me in the past http://www.prothane.com

heres my 2 cents ive done jsut about all of the bushigns myself. yes its a pain but you dont have to have them rpessed out you can cut them out as i did and then jsut hammer the new stuff in. also here what i found about the rear trailin arm. http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1589298 which that tool really does work. but its pricey. and this is for the other bushings. its jsut pictures. http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fs earch%2Fimages%3Ffr%3Dytff1-msgff%26p%3Dcivic%2520poly%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr2%3Dtab-web&w=1280&h=960&imgurl=importnut.net%2Fthehatch%2Fbushing%2Fbushin ginstall_84.JPG&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimportnut.net%2Fthehatch%2Fbushi ng%2Fpage_04.htm&size=317.3kB&name=bushinginstall_84.JPG&p=civic+poly&type=jpeg&no=8&tt=162&oid=24012f37378ed302&ei=UTF-8