1990-1993 Acura Integra Trailing Arm Bushing Development:

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The trailing arm is a major component of the rear suspension and until recently, a factory replacement bushing was not available.  The only way to change out a worn bushing was to purchase a new trailing arm or one of the polyurethane alternatives, but those have there own set of problems. (EDIT: The replacement TA bushing part # is 52385-sk7-n02 from Honda.)

MUGEN has high performance OEM style replacement trailing arm bushings available for most generation Civics and for the 3rd generation Integra. The goal of this project was to install a 3rd generation (1994-2001) Integra trailing arm bushing onto a 2nd generation (1990-1993) Integra trailing arm.

I ordered a pair of MUGEN 3rd Generation Integra trailing arm bushings part number 52385-XE9-S0N0 from King Motorsports Unlimited, Inc. in Sullivan Wisconsin. I then acquired a pair of DA trailing arms to experiment with and took the components to West End Alignment in Torrance, California. Here’s what we found out:

To make the MUGEN bushing fit into the DA’s tailing arms, West End’s Darrin Nishimura pressed out the DA TA bushing, melted/burned out the old bushing, removed a small amount of metal from the inside of the remaining ring to make it round and smooth. He then removed some metal from the outside of the MUGEN bushing so that it would fit inside the DA ring. He then pressed the MUGEN bushing into the DA sleeve and then pressed that whole assembly into the DA trailing arms. He said that the fit was so tight, replacing the bushing may be a problem and that the assembly would pull out of the trailing arm before the bushing would pull or slip out of the sleeve.

Here are a few pictures of the finished product:

Below: The MUGEN 52385-XE9-S0N0 bushing is inside of the DA trailing arm bushing's metal sleeve.

Below: A picture of the backside of the trailing arm.  You can really see how tight the fit is.

UPDATE: 05/09/2004 (Happy Mother's Day)

Here are some pictures of the old trailing arms to show the condition of the old bushings.  Enjoy!

Passenger side trailing arm and "bushing"

No wonder the rear end always felt a little squirrelly

Driver's side bushing (front)

Driver's side (back)