Springs, Struts, Swaybars, Bushings, Tower Braces & more
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By 1993 Civic Si
#229 First of all, the standard disclaimer: I'm not responsible for anything you do.

Secondly, this is my first DIY post, so I will prolly leave some things out.

The main reason I opted for this upgrade is that we auto-x the car. We run in a "Stock" class (HS) which allows for very few upgrades. The front sway bar and bushings is one of the few. With the soft stock springs and 21mm bar, the Si has a Lot of body roll.

There are other allowed upgrades which would help the car's performance more such as R-comp tires, better struts, a cat-back exhaust, and even a larger FSB.

As this is our first season, I really wanted to "fix the driver" first before delving into the more serious (and costly!) mods.

Enough of the "why" and onto the "how."

First of all, raise the front of the car and support it with stands and chock the rear wheels. Set the e-brake, too. Remove the front wheels for easier access.

You'll need two 12mm wrenches or sockets (at least one wrench), two 15mm wrenches (at least one socket), something for a little leverage, and a torque wrench.

This is the part you'll need; I think it's the same for all EG's.

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Here is the OEM end link on the driver's side. I've already loosened the top nut (12mm). The wrench is on another 12mm nut that serves as a spacer. There is also another 12mm nut on the bottom.

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Once you remove the top and bottom nuts, you'll need a little leverage on the FSB to remove the end link bolt. I used a large rachet between the FSB and the frame.

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Here's the old bushings/bolt removed:

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After removing the old bushings and bolt, installation of the ES parts is a tad easier. Just install the bushings in the same orientation as they were in the package; put the tapered end toward each opening in the FSB and the control arm. I ran the supplied bolt up from the bottom, but you could reverse this. I also coated the faces of the bushings with lithium grease.

Notice the ES kit's bolt has a head, a spacer (instead of that goofy nut!) and a self-locking nut. The only difference is these are 15mm instead of 12mm.

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After installation, just snug the parts. Helms says not to torque these parts until the wheels are on the ground. Do the other side, replace the wheels (and torque the lugs...80 ft/lbs.) and lower the car. The end link bolts should be torqued to 16 ft/lbs. I'd also re-check these after 50 miles (or so) just to make sure.

I drove the car several days and raced it yesterday. Under normal driving, the car does feel a little tighter during cornering. At the auto-x event, I can't say the installation improved our times, but the car did feel more responsive during hard cornering. I think the 13 year old, soft rubber bushings allowed for a little "slop" in the FSB.

Hope this helps! Lemme know you guys input!!!
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By teal_dx
#230 nice write up and great pics!
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By 1993 Civic Si
#232 THANKS!!!

I'd looked at several other boards and couldn't find an article on this, so I thought I'd do one here.

I have the FSB body mount bushings coming on backorder. I look forward to getting them installed. I'll prolly do another thread for them even though they look really simple. Was even thinking of doing one on resetting the ECU...there seems to be a LOT of confusion on this on a LOT of boards.
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By chnzgoofball
#1648 hey great write up.. brought to my attention that i should change mines too thanks alot this really helped
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By chnzgoofball
#228239 i just did this to mine and i felt a fairly good amount of difference
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By Dareko
#228310 you feel a some difference?
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By suspendedHatch
#348147 It affects the transition when one wheel starts to lift and the other starts to drop (when the swaybar begins to take effect). The bar goes from doing nothing, to the end links rotating in opposite directions (through the bushings), then the bar starts to twist forcing the wheels to stay level with each other.

Some swaybars have the design that uses two ball joints. Those suck because they break and it's difficult to tell by looking at them. There's not a lot of aftermarket options for them either. Count yourself lucky if you have the bushing stack design.

Reset the ECU = pull 7.5A "backup" fuse under your hood, blink your brights to kill the surface charge, reinstall the fuse and reprogram your radio stations lol The various Honda manuals say to wait 5 or 10 seconds but your best bet is to blink the lights.