I'm glad to know it helped you. I had a hard time finding any online info at all for 2wd Dakota ball joints so I made that post in case it would help anyone else replace theirs.

Jimmy

 

For anyone looking for a great price on the ball joints. I just bought a set from thetireclub. This is their eBay store. Link http://stores.ebay.com/thetireclub

I paid less than $45 for the set. Coni-Seal Brand.
I have used them in other cars, and have had good service from them. And yes they do have a grease fitting.

Thanks Jimmy for the help with this thread.

 

im going to try an air chisel when i get to doing mine. Should speed things up a bit.

 

X2 on the air tool. Im hoping my air hammer drives them right outa Dodge!

 

Just got done doing mine. Those rivets are kinda soft. More than what I thought they would be. A air chisel works great. Knocks them off in no time. The air punch, not so good. I drilled the center with a 5/16, and then a few wacks from side to side on the end of the old joint, and the rivets just fall out. I never messed with the sway bar. As my stud was frozen in the tab after I removed the 17mm nut. I didnt want to break any of that, so I just cut the stud enough to let the new bolt drop thru. Wasnt a issue when knocking off the rivet. Just couldnt place the new bolt in with the new joint. Cutting that will not hurt a bit. So if yours is froze up, just cut it off some. I still have the full threads on the nut after.

All in all not a bad job. I can say one thing. It was half the job as putting lowers in my Sable. That was a nightmare........

 

Well.. I ended up doing all the ball joints, tie rod ends and sway bar pins this evening. The uppers are definitely a bit easier than the lowers but both went pretty well. On the uppers I found that if I drilled out with 1/4" bit, then took a chisel and hit a couple wacks on the bottom side of the rivit they would fall right out.

 

Well my air chisel idea didnt work so well for me. My air compressor couldnt keep up (13 gallon).
So what i ended up doing was grinding the tops of the rivets off with a 3" cut-off, then drilling down the center of the rivets most of the way, then using the air hammer to push them out.
And oddly enough it was only my top BJ that was bad. So i left the bottom for another day.

 

Your tops have rivets?

 

yeppers.

 

Hi.I can not seem to get the pics to fully download,not sure why,i tried reloading the page,but with no luck.Any help would be great.Thanks