Ball Joint Rivets

[mrgmguy]

I am replacing my balljoint on a buick century , the ball joint is held in by rivets from the factory just wondering if thers any special way to remove these the control arms are steel not aluminum

Topic

[David Zitterich]

I’ve heated them with a torch until the heads were red hot then use a air hammer with the chissel and knock the head off, or use a 4inch grinder and grind the heads off then take a hammer and punch and tap the rest through

[TexasCoder]

+1 to David Zitterich comment. Knock the heads off the rivet and then chisel/punch them out. I had to do the same on my Dodge Dakota, I used a grinder to knock the rivet heads off, then I used my pneumatic air chisel to punch the rest of it till it fell o

[Third Gear]

I did this on my Sierra and it was a pain at first, but then I got the hang of it. The manual says to drill them out, so after trying various other techniques that didn’t work, I bought a set of cobalt drill bits and broke out the cutting oil. I would drill out the rivet to about 1/2″ to 3/4″ knock the head off with my cheap air hammer. Next I took an old bolt that’s about 4″ long, set it in the hole and pound out the rivet with my 4lb mini sledge (while using vice grips to loosely hold the bolt, don’t want a trip to the ER).

Yes price out the whole arm, sometimes I don’t mind paying a little extra to save pain and suffering.

[EricTheCarGuy]

+1 on using a chisel, for me it’s been the quickest way to get it done, my drill bits are all crap which is the main reason I don’t like to drill things out.

[Author]

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