Does anyone know how to replace the ball joints on a dodge dakota v-6 2000?The joints are held in the suspension arms with steel brads..I think that the dealership uses some kind of hammer drill to remove the brads ( how they do this,I dont know.These brads are made of hardened steel..) Anyway,I dont think they can be drilled out because it would take some kind of a drill bit-the heat would probably burn the bit up.. Anyway,after the dealership gets the ball joint out they then replace the old joint with a new joint that uses bolts with nuts-these nuts are not even lock nuts-also no cotter key.What would keep this joint from coming loose?The only other alternative would be to replace the suspension arm with a new joint attached-this could be expensive.Does any one have any ideas?Thanks..

 

the bolt in balljoints are perfectly fine, much easier to replace when you need to,
i'd had to remove the stock ones before...



its not easy in any manner

 

do you have a 2wd or a 4x4?, btw those brads are called rivits

 

its a 2 WD.Ok,can these rivits be drilled out??Do they make a drill bit hardened enough for this??

 

drill bit for steel will be fine, you can also notch a cross into them with a chisel (+ like this) and hit them out with a punch, or grind the heads off with a grinder... i opt for option 1

 

air hammer works pretty good too. with a chisel bit. knock the head of the rivet right off.

 

+1 tamcnally air hammer =

 

i tried that, the tops came out pretty easy, the lowers cost me a chisel bit.

i'd vote for the torch,

other way to do it without such goodies

use a...
hold on i gotta grab pics out of my bucket...

here, i blew out an upper not too long ago aND I TOOK PICS
starting with a blown BJ...


using a 4.5" cutoff wheel nothch the heads of the rivets




go ahead and cut as much as possible, then hammer and chisel the ball joint off




then toss a grinding wheel on your angle, and grind the body of the rivet down to be flush with the control arm, then use a punch to knock them out



one thing i didnt get a pic of, you're gonna need to jam a 2x4 or something between the upper control arm and the frame, the bumpstop absorbs all the force of any hammer blows rendering them useless..

same method can be used for the lowers,

 

oh, excuse the mess under there that was before i cut the spring pocket out and painted the frame up