Upper Ball Joint replacement

[Echomirage]

the haynes manual says to drill out the original rivets. on other cars, ive always just ground off the heads, and had them come off that way. is this any different? i ground off one head, then went and drilled it anyway with a 1/8 bit. 15min later, i was through. im trying to do as much myself, because ill have to take it to a shop for the lower BJs and alignment anyway, as i dont have a press.

also, i cant think of a way to get the BJ out of the knuckle without taking it out of the control arm first. its 4wd, so theres no way to get any kind of BJ press in there, and my pickle fork is too narrow to pop it out. so is hopefully grinding the rivets, then with the BJ out of the UCA, hammer the BJ out of the knuckle the usual way of doing it?

 

[steampunk1375]

Yeah, you're fine doing it that way. And you would probably save money if you bought a balljoint press. They fit, trust me. I've done literally hundreds.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Grind the rivet's, it'll be fine. As for the lower's the press fits, after you remove the CV.

 

[Echomirage]

thanks for the replies. i ground two rivets, used an air hammer, and nothing. all that did was pound a hole in the center of the rivet. 20yrs, 150K miles, still original.....i think i may have to both grind and drill out the entire rivet.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

I usually wind up going well into the ball joint itself.

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[magimerlin]

To pop it outta the knuckle... unbolt the main bolt till it is almost off.. with 5 lbs mini sledge or similar hit the spindle where the ball joint goes throght.. hit it good and hard.. after a few, maybe more, good wacks it will pop outta the tapered hole... Haven't used pickle forks in years now...lol.. works on tie rod ends to and you do not destroy the dust boot if you need to reuse something...

sent from what use to be a great country...

 

[skylark]

To pop it outta the knuckle... unbolt the main bolt till it is almost off.. with 5 lbs mini sledge or similar hit the spindle where the ball joint goes throght.. hit it good and hard.. after a few, maybe more, good wacks it will pop outta the tapered hole...

sent from what use to be a great country...

I have heard of this method for years. I have had zero luck with it. I believe that is because I throw ball like a left-handed 4 year old girl and I swing a hammer even worse.

 

[magimerlin]

You need either a more manly hammer or need bigger arms....lol... this is how I do ALL the ball joints and tie rods I do at work.. done hundreds this way... hit harder and more if it doesn't pop right away.. don't be afraid to swing at it like your hitting a home run... I use a 5 lbs Wilton mini sledge to do all the ones I do....

sent from what use to be a great country...

 

[Echomirage]

separating the BJ from the knuckle is the easy part. i have new joints, that was the reason to take the old ones out. after buying a BJ fork, rather then use my tie rod fork, they came right out. what was hard was getting the rivets out and separating the joint from the UCA. had to grind, drill, then wedge screwdrivers and pickle forks to get them out, but theyre finally done.

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

All of them I have done have required grinding them flat on top, drilling them out to 1/4", then I lay the UCA against a table, and hammer the ball joint itself downward until the ball joint pulls the rivets out. Drilling out the lowers is the real pain IMO. I hate doing the riveted lowers so much, I tried finding a set of the forged arms so I could have pressed in lowers.