You're not alone. I've probably replaced the grommets on 12 Jeeps and it's a PIA. I remove the valve cover now and take a heat gun to the grommets. Softening them up with heat makes them come out much easier.You would think replacing those would be an easy task...well its not.
First the brittle plastic PCV valve broke. Then the dried out grommet wouldn't come out. I tried cutting it but it was rather hard. The blade went into my knee way easier than it went into the grommet. I ended up ripping the lip off with pliers, pushing the grommet in and pulling it out with pliers (there is a deflector on the back side). And all this was with the valve cover off (I was replacing the gasket). There is no way I would have been comfortable if I had to do this with the valve cover on the engine, I would have been too worried about pieces getting into the engine. You might be better off just pulling the valve cover...to replace the gasket...and doing the grommet then. Hopefully you don't have the same issues I had, it was definitely filed in the PITA cabinet for reference later on.
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