im putting in my spec 3+ right now...

how do i get the pilot bushing out? i tried a little hook tool ive got, but it's in there pretty tight!

is it a must to replace it?

 

You can get an attachment for a slide hammer and yank it out or pack it with grease and use a hammer & rod the size of the inut shaft to hydraulicly force it out or use your little finger to just pull it out or super glue a piece of string to it and hook it to a team of horses and let them pull it out - there's probably a super expensive GM tool to get it out...

 

Autozone has a tool you can rent called a "blind hole puller". It's basically a slide hammer fitted with an adapter that expands when you thread it further down on the slider hammer. Just put it through the pilot bushing/bearing, open the "jaws" as far as they will go, then go to town with the slide hammer. On my car, the bushing was in there so tight that there is no way the hydraulic method Kevin mentioned above was going to work for me after wrestling with it for an hour. It took a solid 15 minutes with the slide hammer to eventually get it out, huge p.i.t.a!

 

grease and rod works great

 

wet toilet paper and something that just fits in the hole i did this on mine and it came out like butter keep stuffing wet toilet paper in and hammer away

 

Done both a slide hammer, and the toilet-paper trick. Both work.