TLDR: this is complete notes for replacing the ball joints and inner bushings of the Rocky Road Outfitters (RRO) front upper control arms, as part of the popular RRO control arms / Bilstein 5100 shocks / Old Man Emu (OME) lift springs combo for the WK2 Grand Cherokee. This writeup ties together info from a number of different posts and videos, points out areas where existing media suggests unnecessary work, and provides a method for quickly removing and installing the bushings.

I have about a 3" lift using these components and with Black Rhino York wheels and 275/65/R18 Falken Wildpeaks. 2014 Limited, tow package, diesel. I previously installed Moog Problem Solver swaybar end links front and rear, which solved clunking but only moderately improved my other complaint of worsening, loose handling. Installing the ball joints and inner bushings fully solved handling; the vehicle is back to the very tight handling I had after first installing the lift, wheels, and tires.

Tools

Investing in or borrowing these or equivalents is crucial for this job:

1. Arbor press of some kind. I bought this Vevor 12 ton shop press, which is capable and fairly solid. I made a wheeled base for it with some leftover 4x4 lumber and have found it very useful.
2. Something that can press the control arm ball joints out, ideally in place. I bought an OEMTools 25219 hydraulic ball joint separator, which was just big enough to grip the ball joint and knuckle and apply enough pressure that whacking the knuckle with a 3 lb sledge a couple of times got the ball joint out.
3. A pressing cup kit with options that will work with the inner bushings and control arm sleeve. A bit overkill, but I went with an OEMTools 25104 21 piece ball joint separator kit. I didn't end up using the c-clamp at all, but I did make extensive use of the various cups and pressers in the arbor press for both removal and installation.

Parts

1. I went with Moog K6292 Problem Solvers. These are a different Moog part number than RRO will give you, but they are absolutely identical to the original Moog ball joints that came in the control arms.
2. RRO fixed this after I called for support, but until recently their site said that the control arms use 'OEM bushings.' The control arms do use OEM bushings, but for the first gen Liberty (KJ), and RRO shaves them down by 3/8" on the inner side. I went ahead and ordered from RRO because the price was fine and I did not want to deal with evenly shaving them.

Suspension Disassembly

1. Support vehicle, remove wheels, disconnect battery.
2. I already had the front off to install a new radiator, but if I were doing this job again I'd take the front off to stand on the bumper beam while accessing the rear inner bushing bolts (more on those soon). It takes maybe ten minutes.
3. Detach sway bar end links to allow for full coilover extension.
4. Detach suspension angle sensor bar from passenger side control arm. The lever arm side is a bolt, the control arm side is a press-in socket. I unbolted the bar from the lever, popped it off the control arm, and set it aside. There is no equivalent sensor on the driver's side.
5. Remove all four top bolts from each ball joint.
6. Loosen the castle nut on the ball joint, but leave it on the end to get better grip with the extractor and keep the ball joint on the knuckle when it comes free. Don't do what you see in one of my pictures, I was careless and when the ball joint released it shot to the top of the wheel well and fell down behind the coilover.
7. Secure the steering knuckle with a strap or heavy duty bungee; you don't want it flying outward and dislocating the half shaft / drive shaft. At this point I also had the lower control arms supported with jacks for more stability.
8. Safety glasses on, keep them on while freeing bushings and joints and place yourself mindfully RE: where things might fly if they come apart under pressure.
9. Clean out the interfaces between the knuckles and ball joints and liberally spray PB Blaster.
10. Work the extractor jaws onto the top of the knuckle and the bottom of the ball joint bolt/castle nut. This will take a little trial and error, and with the OEMTools 25219 you have to trust that the hardened metal of the tool will stand up to applying pressure when the screw is only a couple of turns in (there was zero thread damage when I finished). Once you've got a firm seat, tighten it down with the manual / larger head as much as possible, and then move to the smaller hydraulic head and give it the business. Once that is tightened down, I was able to get both sides to release within 3-5 moderate side hits to the knuckle with a 3 pound sledge.
11. If you are supporting the lower control arm, release that to get full extension on the coilover, which should happen with the vehicle in the air and the sway bar end links removed.
12. Unbolt the shock towers from inside the engine bay. This is really straightforward, all bolts are exposed.
13. Remove the chonker of a retaining bolt to release the bottom of the coilover, freeing the whole coil assembly to move around in the wheel well. I was able to easily get it off with a Dewalt 1/2" 20V impact driver on the nut and a breaker bar plus socket securing the bolt. You're doing this because otherwise you will not be able to remove the bolts that secure the control arm inner bushings to the frame. Some of the writeups and videos online will show using a longer prybar to open the coils enough to get them out. This is absolutely unworkable with the Old Man Emu springs, which are thicc and don't line up that way. Also, why mess around with an approach that can pulverize fingers if the prybar slips while your hand is on the bolt and in the coil?
14. Remove the left /passenger side rear control arm nut. Standing on the bumper beam, with the engine cover off, it is fairly easy to reach around with an 18 mm ratcheting wrench and access this bolt. Just follow the curve of the shock tower around with your hand until you find the bolt on the back side. Granted, I am 6'5", but I think anyone over 6' can probably reach it while standing on the bumper. To get this and all of the other nuts started, I torqued on the outside bolt until it moved slightly and then liberally doused the nut in PB Blaster. Obviously, this won't significantly loosen the nut, but it will break it off the surface a bit. Don't forget to take a few swigs of your beer and check messages to give the PB Blaster some time to work .
15. Remove the left / passenger side front control arm bushing nut. A number of the tutorials I watched said to remove the fuse box, so I started that way. You absolutely do not need to do this. It is much easier to unclip the ECU (silver lunch box shaped thingy) and the coolant overflow tank just in front of it and gently move both out of the way. You don't need to disconnect the ECU cables, they're thick and a bit stiff but you can gently move the whole thing to the side, exposing a half moon cutout / tunnel under the fuse box. You can get at the nut through this tunnel, using about a 6-8" extension on your socket.
16. Remove the right / driver side front control arm nut. Take the air box and subsequent intake tubes off, back to the combined turbo inlet and little inlet for connecting the small tube back to the crankcase. There's no need to unplug the MAF, once the tube is free you can just fold it over and leave it laying on top of the middle of the engine. The bottom half of the air box doesn't actually have retaining bolts, it's secured by three pop socket deals and you can pull it straight up and out. At this point the nut is super easy to access, no further notes.
17. Remove the right / driver side rear control arm nut. This is the hard one, and you definitely want to do everything you can to get it started (see above). More than one existing tutorial mentions removing the steering linkage to create more space, but I don't understand why. I have large hands and had to take my watch off to get my forearm in between the AC lines and the steering linkage, but once I got in and felt out the position of the nut I was able to start ratcheting. It was tendon-punishing to get started for removal and to finish for installation, but doable.
18. Pull the bolts out by moving the detached shock towers out of the way. At this point the control arms are free and will slide out easily, especially if your old bushings are as worn as mine. My ride was still ok, and I wasn't having any clunking, but the inner metal sleaves of my bushings had fully detached and fell out with the bolts.

Figure 01 - Ball Joint Removal

Figure 02 - Absolutely Necessary 18 mm Ratchet


Old Bushing Removal and New Bushing Installation

1. The outside flange of the bushing, on the outside of the control arm, is wider than the sleeve of the control arm. This presents an issue with using cups on a c-clamp or in the arbor press; there's no way to get the receiver seated with more than one point of contact and therefor no good way to press.
2. I tried a bunch of different setups to get leverage in a way that wouldn't damage the control arm or risk everything flying apart while getting the business from the arbor press. I did get one bushing to unseat while angling the arm into the press (see pic), but it wasn't going to progress further without a lot more force and I didn't like the angled pressure near the weld.
3. RRO support told me that people will tap these out with a chisel or screwdriver and hammer, applied against the seam between the flange and the socket. I'm not sure how long that would take, but I didn't try it. I had to significantly leverage the pressing ability of the 12 ton arbor press to remove and install, it's hard to imagine tapping these out or in.
4. I solved this by carefully cutting the flange on the outside edge with an angle grinder, removing that part of the flange to create a second seating point for a receiver cup. By nearly trimming the flanges through and then bending them back and off with pliers, I was able to avoid gouging the face of all four cups. See pic.
5. At this point we can press the bushing out easily. See pic.
6. To install the new bushings, I set the arm up in the arbor press so that the bushing had clearance to push out past the inside/bottom face of the receiving cup. Then, I found a cup with a nearly identical diameter to the fat end of the bushing and flipped it around so that the flat face was pressing down on the rubber and center metal tube. This allowed me to press the bushing in with the 12 ton arbor press, which required a lot of force. Just remember that the rubber will flex back into place once the press is done. See pics.

Figure 03 - Cutting the Flange for Even Pressing

Figure 04 - Press Out

Figure 05 - Press In


The rest is just reversal of steps and order. Don't reconnect the sway bars before you do the coilovers or you'll have trouble getting the fork of the coilover back in, etc. Jack up the lower control arm to get good alignment for reinstalling the swaybar links. Don't forget to lower the vehicle onto flat ground before fully tightening the control arm inner bushing bolts, or else they'll have the wrong preloading and your ride and handling will be off.