The easiest way to remove the upper ball joint rivets is with a air hammer and chisel blade. screw drilling them out.take the air hammer and make a + sign on top of the rivet then proceed to cut the head off once the head of the rivet is cut off knock the remainder of the rivet through the control arm and remove the ball joint. upon install make sure the bolt goes in from the bottom leaving the nut on the top of the control arm. this repair takes about 30-45 mins total rack time to change both sides.

 

I believe in 2000 they went with a newer "better" style of ball joints, thathave proved to be terrible.
there was a sticky thread at the top about the recall and i believe this is what it said.

 

mine is the 2wd model which was not included in the recall

 

I am just about to replace my upper ball joints. Does anyone know the torque specs for the bolts that replace the rivets?

 

Why does it matter if the bolt goes in through the bottom with the nut on top? I think that I would prefer to have the bolt through the top with the nut on the bottom on the off chance that the nut worked loose. At least I would have gravity on my side when the vehicle wasn't in motion and there wasn't any stress holding the bolts in place.

 

I have replaced my tierods and ball joints. The brand I chose was Moog. they do have grease fittings. I like these a lot better than the non-greaseable stock type. Check out my second page @ car domain. FYI non greaseble ball joints have a short life, and bad cornering

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