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UCA bushing removal/replacement?

scallywag

NAXJA Forum User
Anyone have great advice on how to remove and replace the Upper Controll Arm bushings in the axle housing? I have the bushings but I'm not sure how to get the old ones out. It seems like a pretty pressed in fit. Thanks for any advice.
 
I just did it on my '95 XJ. Mine is 2WD, the 4WD front axle may be different at the differential pumpkin.

I borrowed a Pick-Up Truck Ball Joint Replacement Tool from AutoZone. They charge your credit card as a deposit, when you bring it back you get a refund. I checked out several places that rent/loan tools, non had the proper cups to press the bushings out, just press them in.

So to remove the bushings, of course remove the UCA first, I used a cheap air chisel with a pointed tip and pounded on side of the bushing on the inner side front, where the structure is open that the bushing is pressed into. The pounding from the air chisel bends the bushing shell inward for part of the circumference and that takes the pressure off and you can push the bushing out by hand. This technique of course commits you to following thru on the job, because you'll destroy the old bushing before you get it out, you can't quit and try to re-use the old bushing once you start.

Once you have them out, just use the Tool you loaned from AutoZone. Its nothing more than a MONSTER C-CLAMP, with cups that fit over the bushing and squeezes the new bushing in. The structure welded on the axle at the open sides, may bend in a bit as it dragged with the bushing as you press it in. I just took a drift with a hammer and tapped them back in place.

Since mine is 2WD, the structure welded on the axle that the bushing press's into, its different on the 4WD that has a diff pumpkin and a shorter structure is welded on the top of the diff pumpkin. Some pics I've seen, look like that structure is solid all the way thru, other pics look more like the 2WD version. Eitherway, look at yours closely, my technique to remove it needs an open portion in the structure, so you can attack the outer shell of the bushing and collapse it partially to take off the pressure and slide it out by hand.

Where did you get you bushings? I ordered my first set from Quadratec, they were CROWN bushings. They didn't fit, just a tad to small, so they would go in snug by hand, but it wasn't an interference fit, so they would rotate and move in and out just by hand. That will NOT work, so I went and got a TRW set from AutoZone, they were interference fit and what I have on there now. Quadratec either sent me the wrong ones or there is something wrong with the CROWN bushings in that spot.
 
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Put them in the freezer, while you are removing the old ones. It will make them go in easier. JIM.
 
ILLXJ said:
Put them in the freezer, while you are removing the old ones. It will make them go in easier. JIM.

x2, and I used some assembly lube on mine to get them in.
 
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