Bushing removal

What is the correct way to remove a bushing? I struggled for 2 hours last night to get the bushing pressed out of my JKS track bar. I finally got it, but it was a major pain. There has to be an easier way.

I did it with my harbor freight u-joint press. The problem was it just pressed the rubber and inner sleeve out, leaving the outer steel sleeve behind. Getting that out was the pain. I finally found a piece of steel pipe that was almost the right diameter, did a bit of grinding to get it was just slightly smaller than the sleeve I was pressing out, and then was able to press the sleeve out.

It took a LOT of pressure to press that sleeve out - had to use a hi-lift jack handle over a breaker bar to crank the u-joint press down.

Crawling around under my Jeep last night, I noticed that one of my control arm bushings is a little ragged (rear passenger LCA, axle end). It doesn't feel loose yet, but is visibly showing signs of wear. So I will probably be replacing that one soon, and don't want it to be as painful a process...

Bump - nobody have an easier way to do this?

Sorry can't help, I usually depend on you to tell me how something is done

My usual final solution is to take it to a shop.

~J

I usually use a press.

I usually use a little grease. Maybe you should start going to the gym!

I tried soaking it with PB Blaster first. It did come out eventually, just was a whole lot harder than I thought, and the prospect of doing it 16 more times to replace all of the bushings in my control arms is very scary. Fortunately I think I only need to do one of them right now, but if one is bad, the rest probably aren't far behind...

Oxy-Acetylene Torch, burn them out

Zip wrote:Oxy-Acetylene Torch, burn them out

The problem was getting the steel sleeve out, not the rubber part inside. The rubber part just pushed right out, no problem. The sleeve that got left behind was so thin it was hard to find something the right diameter to press it out.

Go get some tubing the same dimension and cut new ones

Use a sawzall to make a cut in the sleeve once you have the rubber pushed out, then use a small diameter drift to knock the sleeve in on itself.....same thing works on that upper joint in the front axle.

Know its an old thread but have done this successfully a few times and wanted to share my .02!

Yeah when I started this thread, I didn't own a sawzall, but I have one now, and that is exactly what I would do.