Bushing Replacement Hints

Hey All-

This weekend was pretty productive, in that I got my all of my bushings replaced, got the original N/T axle dropped and re-hung the new one, as well as removing my W/T spring perches from the rear axle and installing the new ones.

I found some interesting tricks (and combined them from several posts here on ECJ5) that may help someone else who may be getting to remove the bushings from their CJ

I found that if you use a 5/64” bit and drill out the rubber surrounding the inner sleeve, this allows you to use a hammer and punch to drive out the sleeve.

For the outer sleeve, which is usually rusted to the frame point, I found that a sawzall with a BiMetal blade will fit in the hole and you can cut the outer sleeve in 2 places and the drive it out with the hammer and punch combination. The sleeves are thin, so you have to be careful not to cut too deep… the key here is to take your time and watch what youre doing.

In the case of removing existing aftermarket bushings, you can use the same 5/64” drill bit and slide it in between the bushing and the outer eye. Let the drill bit walk around the rubber/ploy sleeve while exerting a slight pull on the drill. The rotating action of the drill bit and the pull on the drill will result in the bushing coming out.

When installing the new bushings, grease everything as directed in the instructions and push them into the eyes as far as you can by hand… then I used a large C clamp to push the bushing in the rest of the way. I repeated the process for the inner metal sleeves…
In all I had my bushings (all six) removed and the new ones installed in about 1.5 hours…

I hope someone will find these hints of some use