Lower ball joints

[Andreas]

Drilled out all the rivet heads on the ball joint from underneath the car. Thought it was like the upper ball joints just punch the rivets out when the heads was off.
No way...they are stuck like hell! Am I missing something here?
Did a search but all I found was people in the same trouble but no real answer.

Do you have to take the "upper" heads off the rivets on the lower ball joint?

 

[TYTILIDIE]

They are just like the uppers. I grinded the tops off on mine and had to hammer a big screw driver to pry the ball joint up. It will come off. Grind them flat with the surface.

Mike

 

[dgoodhue]

The ones I did were in their as well, they didn't come out with a simple whack or two fo a hammer. I was doing the work at a place that had a press, so I used that, to get them out. (I am sure this is overkill, but it was really easy that way) I was also doing control arm bushing at the same time.

 

[Andreas]

Ok, so the trick is to punch them out from the upper side.

Just got surprised when the uppers was like poking the rivets out with a screwdriver and now the rivets on the lower aren't moving at all when I hit them with a 5lbs hammer. Crap!

 

[jimmyz79]

When I did mine, I loosened the axle shaft nut and pushed the axle shaft inward - this gave more space to pop it out. Pain in the A** job. Good luck.

 

[Andreas]

Ok...started the day off in the garage with more swearing at the rivets.
Tried to press them out with the ball joint separator tool. The tool arm broke! They are realy stuck those rivets.

Now I like to drill those fuckers out.
But I read somewhere that:

" Consider drilling about 1/8" into the head of the rivets with an appropriate size drill bit. You dont want to go too deep as to upset the hole in the A-arm. It makes removing the rivets a snap. Not much to it when you remove the material, after you drill part way through you can take a punch and whack it with a hammer and the rivets should push through. If that doesnt work just you can also attempt to hit the remaining heads of the rivets with a chisel and they should slide off. Again, just make sure you dont go deep enough to elongate the A-arm. "

Is it that bad that you doesnt drill 100% dead on center of the rivet?

Someone done this?

 

[canadian]

i just removed some last weekend. i had an air hammer and removed the heads of the rivets. like you said, i had trouble getting them out of the lower a-arms. i ended up removing the grease boot and whacking the old ball joint spindle until they popped out of the a-arm.

there are a couple of holes that i made oblong by not drilling exactly in the middle. i just picked up new ball joints yesterday so i don't know if it makes a big difference or not when reassembling them.

 

[MasterBlaster]

back in the day I used to use an air hammer and chisel and just cut the rivet heads off and then walk out the ball joint. Of course that advice is poo without an airhammer.

 

[TYTILIDIE]

jimmyz79 Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 9:35 pm Post subject:

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When I did mine, I loosened the axle shaft nut and pushed the axle shaft inward - this gave more space to pop it out. Pain in the A** job. Good luck.

You know I vaguely remember taking my CV out when I did ine cause if I remember correctly, you cant pull the lower out cause the CV goes right over it. Sorry, I shouylda said that the first time...forgot.

Mike