I have a 91 Cherokee with the 4.0. It has about 210,000 miles on it and runs strong. It started leaking oil so I figured being that many miles I'd just start replacing gaskets. The rear main seal was the first I attempted. After taking the bearing cap off, I went to change the rear main seal in my jeep and couldn't get it out from above the crank. I tried using a punch and even a torx head screw driver and hammer like the gojeepin.com site suggested. None of this worked. B/c I had to get it back together for work the next day, I put it back together with a new lower seal and oil pan gasket. It appears to be leaking more now. Anyone have any suggestions for getting the old seal out? I'm going to try taking it apart again this weekend as well as replacing the oil filter o-rings.

My '88 had 150+K when I did mine. I used a small brass drift. It took a little persuasion but it slid out enough to grab with visegrips.

I can imagine it would leak more since you've damaged the upper seal half. Hopefully, you didn't damage the journal.

Try tapping a few times from each side using a pin punch (not a tapered one) that's just smaller than the groove. Don't get overzealous.

Well I hope you have it fixed by now, it would be nice to know what ended up happening. I am a newbie, this is my first post. I am a mechanic and a similiar situation brought me here. I've done several rear main seals, but not many jeeps. I wanted to make sure i wasn't the only one who has had problems. I have a 92 Cherokee 4.0 in the shop right now with the rear main leaking. I could not budge the top seal, i tried several methods including brass drifts, punches etc. I tried threading a screw in it and pulling while having someone else turn the crank. There is a tool for older style rear main seals which is basically just a threaded rod with either a t-handle or an eyelet on it. It's meant to thread into the seal to get a grip and pull it around, but this seal was so hard that it just flattended the threads on the tool. It has 180000 mi on it and must have been hot at one time, I could hardly get the lower seal out of the main cap, like it was baked in. I had all the main caps loose, hoping that the crank would drop down a little to give the seal room to slide, but it didn't because the crank is bolted directly to the flywheel. I loosened up the torque converter bolts hoping that would give me a little more play but didn't. Next i put a jack under the crossmember, removed the bolts and lowered the transmission and all down, which did finally bring my crank down a little, but the seal still would not move. As much as it sucks, the only option now is to remove the transmission to access the top seal, which by the way is the only way the dealer recommends replacing the rear main seal, but they do say it can be done without trans removal. This one has a good scatch in the crank where the seal rides, you can easily catch your fingernail on it, so now the front cover has to come off along with trans removal to get the crank out to send to the machine shop, otherwise it would tear up the new seal. I've never had a rear main stuck that bad and sounds like the same thing you ran into....good luck

I appologize for not posting sooner. I ended up getting the seal out. I had a smaller hammer and a small punch and must have hit that punch around 30 times fore the seal loosened and came out. I tell you what, that was a pain to do but I'm glad I saved the money doing it myself! My black and blue fingernail has just fallen off from doing that job a few months ago. I banged that finger pretty hard trying to pry off the oil pan!