Thoughts after changing control arms

Me and and buddy had a control arm bushing party this weekend. I have a 2000 XJ, he has a 97 XJ.

On the recommendations of a buddy, I went to a muffler shop with upper and lower bushings in hand, and had him expand a 12" piece of pipe that just fit over the bushings at each end. To remove the bushings, I set the piece of pipe on the ground and put the control arm over the section of pipe the just fit over the bushing and used a hammer to knock the bushings out. It worked well and did not bend the control arms. I used Moog bushings with the outer sleeve included.

However; my buddy bought the Prothane total kit that does not include the outer sleeves. At first I thought it was cheesy, however; in the end it was much easier to install. What we found was easiest with this kit was to drill holes in the rubber, until we could push the bolt sleeve out and then use a screw driver to push the remaining rubber out. Then simply grease and install bushing and bolt sleeve. Much easier in the end as you dont have to remove outer sleeve and re-seat.

The only place we had difficulty was with the upper control arm bushing that is on the axle....any tips here would be appreciated!

I also got driver's side upper and lower ball joints replaced on my XJ and they lived up to their reputation. Prison rape pretty much describes how I feel after that debacle. Still have passenger side to go...ran out of weekend.

EDIT: For two weeks prior to this, I soaked everything I was changing in CorrosionX and it seemed to help in the disassembly process. CorrosionX is amazing stuff and is available at Academy.

There is a Mopar tool used exclusively to remove upper control arm axle side bushings.

xray1971 - if you have more details about the tool in question, I'm all ears as I'd love to buy one.

boncrshr - the driver side bushing (on the pumpkin) can be pressed out relatively easily with a ball joint press and some creativity (like using flat steel stock to evenly distribute pressure on the small end of the bushing). On the passenger side, the only "easy" way I've found to remove it is to first drill out the bushing rubber using a hole saw, then use an impact chisel (with a pronged/snake tongue bit) to collapse and spin the outer bushing sleeve. Should be easy to remove after a few seconds with the chisel and it won't distort the bracket (using a ball joint press here will almost guarantee deformation).

X-ray, I will look up that tool when the time comes again...my Mom's XJ has 105K, so it will be soon.

Anthrax, funny, but that is exactly what I ended up doing. The axle bushing was the only hitch in what was otherwise a pretty easy job. The only other part that you have to pay attention to is the firewall side nut on the upper control arms, I was scared it would drop down into the frame rail, but I was careful and did not lose either.

BTW, I did figure out a trick kind of...I did one control arm at a time, and before removing the bolts,tightened a ratchet strap from the trans crossmember to the axle. This kept it from shifting and made re-installation a snap.

It was listed in my FSM. I won't have access to my FSM for a week or so to get you the P/N but will try to remember to post the P/N, that is if someone else here doesn't get to their FSM before me.

The bushing tool looks fairly easy to make once you've found the right diameter pipe. I swapped out the driver's side D30 bushing this weekend but I will not attempt the same installation method (rubber mallet) that I used on the pumkin side.