i need to replace the upper ball joint on my 98 4x4 dak. i picked up one at auto zone for $35. i'm going to have to drill out the rivets on the upper control arm and pickel-fork the joint off. is there anything else i need to know about this, or is it as straight forward as it looks? -thanx

 

Pretty much. You don't even really need a fork. Just loosen the nut on the ball joint so that it has a few threads left and take a hammer and hit the spindle a couple times and it should break loose from the joint.

 

Do you need to do an alignment after?

 

Definately.