Lisle 55600 Clutch Pilot Bushing Remover

Anyone who has done a clutch knows the pilot bushing is the one part that fights you at the worst possible time: the transmission is out, the pressure plate and disc are off, and now there is a worn brass bushing sitting deep in the end of the crankshaft that has to come out before the new one goes in. Grabbing at it with pliers or a hooked puller usually just polishes it, and a blind-hole puller is more tool than the job needs. This little Lisle tool does it the clean way using nothing but grease and a hammer.

The trick is hydraulic pressure. You thread the self-tapping tip two or three turns into the bore of the brass bushing so it grips, pack the cavity behind it with heavy grease, then drive the plunger in with a hammer. The grease has nowhere to go but against the back of the bushing, and it pushes the bushing straight out toward you without touching the crank bore. It is fast, it is controlled, and it works in the confined space at the back of the engine where a jaw puller will not fit.

It handles brass and bronze bushings from 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch inner diameter, which covers the pilot bushings in most rear-drive cars and light trucks with a manual transmission. Note it is built for soft brass and bronze bushings, not hardened steel pilot bearings, so match it to what your engine actually uses. For the money it turns the worst five minutes of a clutch job into a two-minute one, and it lives in the drawer next to your clutch alignment tool.