Boy I tell ya, I was thinking that bolt on ball joints might be a little easier to change then press in and boy was I WRONG.

Never in my life have I found something on a vehicle so tough to get off, these are the factory joints and they are meant to stay on.

I'm just doing the driver side today and I'm really considering taking it to the shop for the passenger side, or get drastic and break out the oxy acetylene torch, i know I know heat and suspension = bad idea.

Stopped for dinner and a Corona.

 

Well got the old bottom joint off and new one in. Top one to go.

 

What tool are you using? Once I figured out the best way to use the one I rented from Advance Auto with a 2 1/2 ft breaker bar it really wasn't that bad.

 

I have to chime in here I k ow that heat and suspension don't mix but I cut mine out with a torch and never had any problem with them and I want places 2wd just should not go or drive over or off : )

 

The original's are riveted on so I had to drill out the rivet's. Time consuming and back breaking.

But it was worth it, NO more squeaking, and my wheels don't rub on the bottom control arm in a full turn!.

The upper ball joint had no up/down or side/side play but was messed up on the inner rim. The bottom ball joint had quit a bit of up/down play.

Will be doing the passenger side next, and now that I know what to expect it should go a lot smoother.

 

If you have air tools available, what I did was just drill the rivet down a bit, and then knock the head off with an air chisel. Use a pointed punch with it to blow the rivet out. On some, I didn't even need to drill them, just knock the heads off with the air chisel.

 

We did try that at first, we couldn't get the rivet's to knock out once we had the head off, regardless of how big a punch or hammer.

 

The manual version is a PITA. Air chisel blows 'em right off. (yes, I cheat.)

 

Well we did have air tools, we could easily cut off the head of the rivet, but for whatever reason we could not get the rest to knock out with a punch and hammer.

All the punch did was make a groove in the rivet.

 

Sounds like you need a bigger BFH......