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Your electrical friend
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Omaha, NE
Posts: 2,177
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B13 ES bushings how to
Since I just did this here's a how-to for B13 ES bushings:
Tools I used: various metric sockets and wrenches including 1/2" drive 12, 14, 15, 17, 20 and 22, 1/2"drive breaker bar, 1/2" drive ratchet, 1/2" impact wrench, 8" bench mounted vise, 5lb. hand maul, 24oz. ball pein hammer, propane torch, liquid wrench, hacksaw, reciprocating saw with metal blade, 4-1/2" angle grinder with a cutoff wheel, cold chisels, a couple cans of carb cleaner for tool cleanup, disposable gloves and lots of rags and various other tools.
First, I'd suggest you do one half at a time, do the rear or front start to finish before you start the other half. The reason being, it took me 3 full days to do the entire car. So if you do one half you can get the car running again and not have to have the thing up on 4 jack stands for 5 days like I did, paranoid that some shithead is gonna knock it off in the middle of the night. I pressed all the bushings in by hand or using the bench vise, it's the easiest part of the job. The long bolts that hold the rear knuckles to the parallel links were rusted to the bushing sleeves, so I had to cut them off to get them out. So I'd suggest that as a time saving precaution, you order two new bolts from the $tealership before you even start the rears, because they might have to order them. They're like $9 each for the two long ones. When you're heating the bushings to get them out, I'd suggest doing this in the grass, the rubber stays soft even after it cools and makes a big mess, it's like grease but worse.
Front end control arm and all sway bar bushings.
Sway bar bushings aren't pressed in, so they're a piece of cake to replace, no explanation is necessary.
Front control arms:
The front control arms each have two bushings, the front ones being two halves with a metal sleeve, and the two rears being a solid rubber bushing with no sleeves. So 3 bushings and one sleeve per side. To remove the control arms remove the front brakes from the knuckles. Next remove the driveshaft pin and nut (sorry don't recall the size of that nut). Next remove the two 17mm nuts and bolts that hold the knuckle on the strut. Swing the knuckle away and pull the driveshaft out of the knuckle. Pull the pin and remove the 20mm ball joint nut and using a hammer smack the ball joint loose. Next remove the 12mm nuts that hold the sway bar end links on the control arms. Also for ease of control arm removal, remove the 4, 15mm bolts that hold the sway bar in. Remove the 22mm bolt and nut that hold the front of the control arm in. Next remove the 17mm bolts that hold the rear of the control arm in via those black metal plates. Once you have the control arms out, mount them up in the vise and use a hacksaw to cut half of the rear bushing off, or clamp one half in a vise and twist the control arm around until it tears off. I found the vise method to be the easiest and quickest means. You'll see that they're split, just cut one half off. There's a metal sleeve buried in that rubber, use a cutoff wheel to cut a slit in it, try not to cut into the control arm pin beneath. Use a screwdriver to pry the sleeve open and it'll slip right off. For the front bushings, use a torch to heat the inner metal sleeve up so hot that it damn near falls out of the bushing. Next, still using the torch, heat up the rubber bushing until it's soft enough you can pop it out with a screwdriver. These front bushings are the thickest ones that have to be burned out, so if you can tackle these two, the 12 in the rear will go much quicker. Once you've got the rubber bushing out, put the control arms back in the vise and using a reciproating saw, cut the outer sleeve out that is pressed into the control arm. Just cut one slit, trying not to cut into the control arm beneath the sleeve, and then a few whacks with a hammer and cold chisel and it'll pop right out. Now, use the grease provided with the bushings to grease the control arm sleeve where the new bushings will go in. You should be able to put the bushings in by hand. Next grease the inside of the polyurethane bushings where the metal sleeve will go and use the vise to press the sleeve in. For the rear bushings, just grease them and slide them on. Now reinstall the control arms in the reverse order and you're done.
Rear parallel links and knuckle:
Remove the rear brakes. Next try breaking loose the long 22mm bolt and nut that hold the parallel links to the knuckle. Just try to get it loose not necessarily removed. Next take the radius bar loose from the knuckle and then loose from the car. (The radius bar is the one that goes from the bottom of the knuckle to the chassis at the front bottom of the wheel well). Next remove the two 22mm nuts and bolts that hold the two parallel links to the car. You'll notice the rear bolts are cam bolts and have cam washers as well, this is used to adjust toe, so use a marker to put indicator marks on the washers and the mount so that when you reassemble the rear, you can get the toe close to what it was before. You'll probably want to have the whole car realigned anyway once you're done. Remove the front bolt first so that you have room to remove the rear bolt once it's loose. Remove the 17mm bolts that hold the knuckle on the strut. If that long 22mm bolt that holds the parallel links to the knuckle won't come off due to the sleeves being rusted on, you can do like I did and cut the bolt off with the cutoff wheel being carefull not to cut into the links of the knuckle. In the same manner as you did the front control arm bushings, heat the metal sleeves on the bushings until they fall out. The bushings should pop out without further heating, and unlike the front, there are no outer sleeves to remove. You have 6 bushings per side in the rear, two on each parallel link, one on the knuckle and one on the radius bar. Again, since they're split, you need a total of 24 bushings and 12 sleeves. They're all the same bushings and sleeves except for the ones on the radius bars. Grease them all like you did the fronts and put them in by hand, then press in the sleeves with your vise. Reassemble in the reverse order.
I would advise a person to replace their sturts, springs, sways and tie rod ends at this time as well if those items were on the list anyway. Then you can get the whole car realigned once and be good to go for quite some time.
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Rob '93 SE-R
PM or e-mail me for Progress swaybars $190 shipped, B13 Progress coilovers $1300 shipped and B13 Progress LCA brace $160 shipped.
Last edited by toolapcfan : Sep 17th, 2003 at 10:40 AM.
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Your master kit of ES was just suspension? i was thinking about buying one of those for my car to get it out of the way, when i changed my rear struts, i noticed my rear stabilizer arm bushing was dead, it was walking all over the place, so i am sure the rest arent that far off. Where did you buy your master kit from and how much if you dont mind me asking. 
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