Energy Suspension bushing kit, front bushing on rear trailing arm install

Alright so I finally put the bushings in, here's how I did it just in case someone wants to do it the same.

**Disclaimer*** I'm not responsible for how your car turns out, these instructions are to be done at your own risk.

Ok so first I contacted hard race and obtained the flanges, $30 shipped for both sets.


Next I went to ace hardware and obtained 1" od and 1/2" id x 3" long zinc plated rod for $15 each, drilled the ID to 19/32". Press one flange into the rod but leave .25" not pressed in. You could also find or have made a 1" od x 19/32" ID x 3.25" rod out of steel and then you wouldn't need to leave a .25" gap. The other end of the tube to be slip fit for the flange. I used a dremel and a diamond bit to remove material on the id of the rod and the od of the flange barrel that's being pressed in.



Here is the trailing arm of the car. Note the orientation of the flanges and align the replacement flanges so that when they are inserted into the arm its easier to install onto the car.






Cut the outer flange, I used a ryobi circular saw, worked great.



Burn out all the rubber, use a razor blade and flat screwdriver to help with removal until id is smooth.



Install energy suspension bushings as per instructions, I installed the pressed flange on the outside. A hint to help with installation is to use the minimum grease possible. It takes up space and there isn't much room. Also I installed the bushings easily by using a concrete floor, align the bushings and arm and used my weight by stomping onto them to press them in, worked great lol.

Next mount onto the car, use high temp sleeve retainer on the od of the slip fit flange and install the arm. Make sure to install the flanges with the correct orientation. Torque bolts appropriately. Wait about an hour or two before placing wheels in the ground to allow the permatex sleeve retainer to start to set.


All done, car rides so much better with these bushings.


I had originally fully pressed the rods onto the flanges, I plan on redoing my setup and leaving a 1/4" gap. So far I have no issues but it bothers me that the slip fit portion of the flange isn't fully inserted in my setup.

Anyway, I hope these instructions help someone down the road.

I was snooping around Siberian Bushings website today and found this:

Seems like a nice alternative to the energy ones and comes with the nessesery collar/flange.

FD7683 said:

Ended up purchasing the Siberian Bushings. Was too convinced about everything in one kit and couldn't stop thinking about it today. $200 gone but let's see how the install goes...

How did you remove your trailing arm? In one piece (knuckle + arm) or did you separate the two? I'm only knocking out the arm bushings.

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Yeah the 50-70$ shipping might not be so bad if you get all the bushings for the rear suspension together. Piecing together the sleeves and flange pings will probably make my total cost for installing the energy rear lower bushings ~$200 (approximating $80 set, $50 sleeves, $60 flanges).
(for lurkers: note the siberian and energy bushings differ in shells/flanges/sleeves; this can change ease of installation and materials possibly sold separately)

I dropped knuckle out (bag wheel sensor, unbolt calipers. knuckle: unbolt top, then bottom bolts; dropped down-outward angle from trailing arm), then unbolted trailing arm.

Lol I proceeded with the removal too quickly when my prothane rear arm bushings were on the way (thought prothane would've been easier to install than energy...oops lol). Told the machine shop to remove all the shells...THEN found out the prothane kit didn't have the rear arm's front position bushing >_>. Dropped ~$150 to undo the mistakes from disassembling too quickly lmao (maybe could've gotten a new shell off mcmaster or something but eh). Think one way you can mess up installation is breaking/removing a shell you have to reuse.