I’m replacing the upper control arm bushings on my ‘01 4WD Durango. I’ve been generally following Schusterjo’s write up here: https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...-repair-4.html.

With a combination of drill and propane torch, I got the bushings out. But I’m looking at the metal sleeve and wondering why I have to take that out. Schusterjo shows it being split, but mine just has a little notch, which you can see here: http://s397.photobucket.com/albums/p...t=P1050738.jpg. The replacement bushing (Energy Suspension) and sleeve are next to it in this shot http://s397.photobucket.com/albums/p...t=P1050737.jpg, to make it clearer what sleeve I’m talking about. With the old bushing out, the new one just slides easily into the old sleeve. I assume it will compress and tighten up when I crank down the nut on the end of the pivot shaft. Do I need to replace this sleeve, or can I just slide the new bushing in? Using the old sleeve will make this a WHOLE lot easier.

And if I have to replace it, is it going to come out easily? The sleeve isn’t split, and I don’t have a lot of confidence that hitting the notch with a screwdriver is going to split the whole thing, unless the metal is a lot softer than it seems. And it feels like it’s welded to the control arm. Schusterjo says to pry it away from the inner part of the shaft with a screwdriver, but when I put a screwdriver in there it just pushes the whole outer arm assembly away. But then, his control arm looks a little different from mine.

 

If you are reading schusterjos write up then you should already know that this is the wrong section, but you still should have read this --> before posting here https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-d...s-section.html

ill move this to the first generation section for you.

 

Thanks. I realized that afterwards. I was operating under less than optimal conditions last night...