Ball joint replacement

[98LTZ]

Hey I'm a newbie on here so please cut me some slack lol. But anyways, on my lumina, I want to change my balljoints when the weather breaks. My question is, what's the mest way besides drilling, to remove the rivets from the lower spindle?? I dont want to use a cold chisel whch takes longer and makes a lot of noise. Thanks in advance.

[89GP_SE]

Air chisel will do it fast! Drillling will take a really long time.

[Crazy K]

I've used a grinder...

[Galaxie500XL]

+++on the grinder...but if you have access to an air chisel, it's much easier and faster...

 

I've used a grinder...

[mra32]

I dont want to use a cold chisel which takes longer and makes a lot of noise.

 

A cold chisel does not take longer. I was using a crappy one and managed to get all 4 rivets off on one side in less than 5 minutes. You'd still be on the first rivet if you were using a drill. And drills are almost as loud as using a chisel, but they drone. Not to mention you'd probably still have to bust out the hammer and chisel/punch to remove the ball joint anyway if you wanted to take care and not enlarge the holes in the strut housing

 

These rivets are hard and do not drill well.

 

Wear gloves.

[xtremerevolution]

I dont want to use a cold chisel which takes longer and makes a lot of noise.

 

A cold chisel does not take longer. I was using a crappy one and managed to get all 4 rivets off on one side in less than 5 minutes. You'd still be on the first rivet if you were using a drill. And drills are almost as loud as using a chisel, but they drone. Not to mention you'd probably still have to bust out the hammer and chisel/punch to remove the ball joint anyway if you wanted to take care and not enlarge the holes in the strut housing

 

These rivets are hard and do not drill well.

 

Wear gloves.

 

I used a chisel to hammer them out. Piece of cake.

[mfewtrail]

Since I have air tools, I prefer using an air chisel to remove the rivets. I have used every other method in the past though.

 

Besides gloves, also wear safety glasses. Even though safety glasses look dorky and are a nuisance at times, they can save your eyes!

[xtremerevolution]

Since I have air tools, I prefer using an air chisel to remove the rivets. I have used every other method in the past though.

 

Besides gloves, also wear safety glasses. Even though safety glasses look dorky and are a nuisance at times, they can save your eyes!

 

x2 to that. Its something you'll very easily forget or overlook. DON'T. Your w-body is not the risk.

[mra32]

Since I have air tools, I prefer using an air chisel to remove the rivets. I have used every other method in the past though.

 

Besides gloves, also wear safety glasses. Even though safety glasses look dorky and are a nuisance at times, they can save your eyes!

 

x2 to that. Its something you'll very easily forget or overlook. DON'T. Your w-body is not the risk.

 

I prefer goggles so rust doesnt get in your eye

[98LTZ]

Oh ok. I thought it might be a special bit not a regular steel bit to remove them but I guess not. I do have a cold chisel but I probably have to sharpen it. I want to make less noise without it, takes longer, and the chisel slipping off while banging if you're not careful. I've used it when I changed balljoints on my contour but from what I remember the rivets were a little softer, raised more and there were only 3 of them.

 

So was the chisel that you used sharpened?

[98LTZ]

Btw , as far as balljoints what's the best dencent brand to get besides moog(way too expensive)?? I'll make sure they have grease fittings.

[Andrew]

Raybestos are fine IMO.

[mra32]

So was the chisel that you used sharpened?

 

The chisel i used was kinda sharp, but i think the most important feature of it was that the two faces were at a small angle.

 

This one might be harder to use since the point is at wide angle.

 

I've had success with the ones that have the faces that go straight into the point

 

[98LTZ]

So was the chisel that you used sharpened?

 

The chisel i used was kinda sharp, but i think the most important feature of it was that the two faces were at a small angle.

 

This one might be harder to use since the point is at wide angle.

 

I've had success with the ones that have the faces that go straight into the point

 

 

 

That's the kind that I have but I think mine might be a little bit smaller. Yea you're right it'll save the holes in the strut housing. Depeneds on what drill bit I used if I used one that was almost as big as the rivets I would probably enlarged the holes if I drilled all the way through. Damn how the hell did you get those rivets out so quick?? The heads are flat not too raised so you must have banged the shit out of it huh??

 

So what brand of balljoints did you put on?? Like I said moog is too expensive but I know theyre the best. As long as I have a decent brand with grease fitting i'll be good to go

[mra32]

I got no name brand and didnt feel too good about them, so i got moog like a year later. The no name brand also had issues with the grease fitting screwing into the ball joint housing on one side...the threads werent fully formed. I'm not one of those guys to be shoving top end parts down the throats of all who will hear me out, but the quality of moog was better than the $12 ones.

 

Raybestos were mentioned as good ones earlier in the thread. I personally dont have any experience with those

 

Do you know about Rockauto.com and the 5% discount code readily available with a google search?

[AWeb80]

i used a grinder and a punch....but my spindler were off the car so that helped