Next on my list to the already produced sway bar bushings has to be the subject of discussion, "Lower Controler Arm Polyurethane Bushings". One of the most cost efective upgrades performable happen to be with Polyurethane Bushings. The reason being is that polyurethane is rock solid as compared to rubber. If you've got a set of my poly sway bar bushings then you'll notice that those will look almost brand new after you take a rag and wipe off the dirt around them. Rubber will compress over a short amount of time and this causes loosness in your suspension as the rubber will travel while poly won't.
Now that you can see why Polyurethane is the choice among top notch tuners, let's turn our focus towards Lower Controler Arms. Your lower arms control your main part of the suspension travel. If you pull one of your tires off, you'll notice in front of you the strut, then a wishbone unit that houses the strut (#14/15 in the illustration below), and at the bottom of the previously mentioned unit is the lower controler arm (#6/7 below). Unlike the anti sway bar bushings (#16) , the lower controler arm bushing (#13) that has the bolt running through it (#21) won't wear out near as fast comparing stock for stock. This is partly due to the fact that it sees less light and weathering as the exposed sway bar bushings do. However, the lower controler arm bushings should NOT be over looked. Slight cracks or weathering marks on this inner part can and will cause that bushing to fail fast as it's one of the most abused parts on the car. As your driving and going over bumps, your wishbone unit will push/pull (travel up and down) on the lower bushing providing it with a lot of wear and abuse.
The kick of it all is this though. We're always looking for suspension upgrades and most commonly start off with lowering springs. These springs will "almost" always have a stiffer spring rate than stock. Another common upgrade is in the struts. By stiffining these two vital parts, your going to abuse the lower bushing just that much more! Age + Abuse ='s blowout. To remedy this, you could go out and buy a new bushing from Honda and they'll run you right at about $20.00 per. I have a shop discount setup at my local dealership under my name and even I can only purchase them at $17.00. In actuality, those bushings have a life expectancy of 100,000 miles. Anything after that, your pretty much gambling with time.
The last word in the previous paragraph is "time". Time is synonomus when dealing with age. Age is most commonly the number one killer of vehicles. Bushings wear out, seals wear out, paint begins to fade, etc. In today's time and age more and more people are replacing the older vehicles with newer ones in order to stay away from dealing with the relativly cheap problems on hand when comparing them to a new car. Nothing on God's green earth was designed to last forever, and unfortunately that includes the 1988 - 1991 Honda Preludes. The aftermarket society has by far left us behind as far as producing parts for our beloved vehicles. If you can't find parts, then why purchase the car? My purpose is to not only produce parts, but to help keep these aging marvles on the roads.
Now on to the juicy information that you've been waiting so patiently for; the bushings themself. As of this time this idea for polyurethane lower controler arm bushings is nothing more than that; an idea. I've not yet made a prototype, have just one pic, and can only speak of what is on my mind. Today I went out and purchased one front lower controler arm outer bushing (#13) for study. I need to take measurements and size these for a proper fit. To my shock, these bushings I'm trying to replace come inside of an outer metal shell. This discovery is both good and bad at the same time. The good part is I could easily produce a fit into a direct mold for the polyurethane. No matter what would be inside, as long as the center was full, the outer shell would ensure a perfect fit into the lower arm. The down side is that I'd need more shells that I can't just purchase from Honda. The point I'm leading to is this; these bushings will only work if I obtain your stock bushings in return as a core. If I run out of outer shells, then everyone will be plum out of luck. I'm going to make one extra set and keep it on hand so that the first customer will have the advantage. I have to require a core though in order to supply the bushings to other people like yourself.
Here's a kind of interesting part that some of you may be interested in. As an added kit package, I'm going to include some tools from Snapon. Snapon happens to be the best in the world ranging from hand tools to NASA equiptment. You're going to need a bushing driver set to remove the stock bushing from its location in the lower arm. Next, your going to need a bushing knocker to install the polyurethane replacements. Your all quite fortunate that I receive an automatic 25 - 30% off discount with Snapon due to the fact that I'm a city employee (automotive tech.) and receive government rates. Fortunately enough, I'm confident that I could offer this aditional kit for no more than $35 (subject to change). I just took a few moments to size the dia. of this bushing and it appears to be between a 36mm to a max of 38mm face. The 36mm punch comes reversable with a 32mm punch on the flip side. The 38mm however comes reversable with a 42mm punch, so I'm going to have to drive one out of my lower front arms to see which punch will be sold with the kit. The size matters however because the prices are different for each punch. The punch will also include a long black handled Snapon Driver and a threaded stoper unit to hold the punch in place on the driver (all shown below in a complete kit, parts sold seperately). The bushing knocker will be red, made by Snapon, and looks like a cone. You'll place the tip of the cone inside the bolt hole (where #21 would normally pin through) inside the middle of the new bushing and then "knock" it into place. Please keep in mind that it's best to use a soft headed mallet when performing this removal/install process. The reason is simply to do no more than protect your tool investment. Last updated 3/24/01 @ 8:03pm
The procedure is quite simple and should be completeable in about 20 - 30 min. Spraying a tiny bit of WD-40 on the outer wall of the new poly bushing will also help to insure a smooth install. Don't use too much as you'll want the new item to stay in place. In the mean time, you now know what to expect. I'm quite confident that the Polyurethane Lower Controler arm bushings will help out tremendously with your suspension setup. If your an 88 - 90 2.0S driver, please note that this is a performable upgrade for your Prelude as well. I know how hard it is to find S parts because I've got one. I also have an 88Si4ws Prelude though that I love just as much and I know for a fact that after much study, these bushings are universal btween the two models. I should make mention of this though as I've not said it as of yet. I'm only going to produce the front lower arm bushings at this time (#13). The rear arm bushings will be next on my list, but I've decided to start with the front as turbo owners tend to complain about a bit of wheel hop due to suspension parts not being upgradeable; I plan to remedy this! There's one final issue that I've neglected to mention till now as well; price? It's hard to say as I've not even produced a prototype yet; once I do this I'll produce better/updated figures. I'm expecting the projected cost of these new Polyurethane Lower Controler Arm Outer Bushings to go at a price of $50 - $75 per set. This price is subject to change, and does not include the set of the Snapon tools accesory kit. Suspension Techniques sells them for about $60 - $65 per set of two bushings and in reality that's my projected price goal. Please keep your eyes and ears open; refer back to this article daily for updates.
Ps. I'm already recieving several requests for these so everyone will have to be patient. If the requests continue to grow much more I'll probably start making a list of names and posting it at the bottom of this article so you can see if you want to sign up or not. Anyone with Spare Bushings of these that would like the work done sooner needs to email me as this is very possible; I appreciate the cooperation from everyone.