Upper ball joints

[blue and silver 1995]

Whew! those factory rivets are murder!
I grinded, beat, banged drilled and finally I think they just gave up and fell out!
Now the passenger side cv axle was a piece of cake, 10 mins out, 10 mins in!
Sway bar end links and front shocks will have to wait until tomorrow when I am refreshed from wollering all over the garage floor!

 

[SUBURBAN5]

Especially if there original lol. I had newer rivets and those were a pain.. keep us posted

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

When I did the UBJs in my Burb 2 years ago, I didn't have trouble getting the bolts out (guess maybe they weren't the original ones, I thought they were all riveted in). My big problem was getting the shaft out of the spindle. Had to use many large hammers, a pitman arm puller, and a pickle fork. Still required many whacks and lots of swearing. Put new lifetime warranty MOOG ones in. Still tight, will pull out for spares, when the new arms are on.
When I've done the LBJs on my other Burbs, I've used the OTC puller/ press. This is the one the HF tool is based on. Works pretty good, but on my 90 R2500 Burb, the right side one came off in 4 pieces. Exploded inside the press cups, sounded like someone shooting a .357 off by my head!

 

[97C1500TJ]

They’re bad but nothing is as bad as rusted in control arm bushings. They might not be too bad with proper tools but at the time, all I had was a Sawzall and an air hammer.

 

[blue and silver 1995]

I noticed today the truck is 1/4 inch higher after the ball joints,
I'm going to drive it, measure and maybe raise 1/2 inch which will still keep the a-arms off the droop stop, then add my new shocks and then put tires on the ground and add the sway bar links, test drive and remeasure. Im shooting for at least 1 inch higher in the front than the back.
Wish I could post pics on here I took several.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

Wish I could post pics on here I took several.

Are you using a cell phone?

 

[blue and silver 1995]

No a laptop, I tried to make an album but says the pictures are too big to download.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

No a laptop, I tried to make an album but says the pictures are too big to download.

I've been using my phone. I was gonna say your should try that and see.

 

[blue and silver 1995]

Today installed the front shocks and sway bar end links, Cranked the keys up another full turn and the A-Arms are about 3/8s off the droop stop and it rides really well, im done for now. Now moving on to other things on the truck.

 

[blue and silver 1995]

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