Maymyvetteliveforevr

I'm in the process of replacing the front end poly bushing and noticed the the upper ***** joints are still the original on my '75. Car has around 50,000 original miles and the ball joints are still in good shape so I figured I'd just replace the rubber boot. My problem is that I can't remove the original boot since it's press fitted into the ball joint. How have others removed the boot? Do you just cut it an fit the replacement up to it?

Oldguard 7

I'm assuming you are talking about the lower ball joints as the uppers hardly wear. You will have to seperate them from the spindle. If you are going to do this them why not replace them? A tie rod puller will work much better than a pickle fork because you wont run the risk of tearing the boot. Also you will have to cut the rivet heads off and punch them out on either control arm if they are the originals.

Maymyvetteliveforevr

The lower ball joints have already been replaced, therefore I was referring to the uppers which are still riveted in place. I didn't want to replace them since I already have the replacement poly boot as part of a kit, and they are not in need of replacement.

70454Convert

I was able to remove the boot by prying the metal ring off with a screw driver and then remove the boot. (You could cut the metal retainer with a dremel to mae this easier). Long Island corvette supply sells replacement boots that don't need the metal retaining ring.

Maymyvetteliveforevr

I believe the metal ring compresses the top of the boot?

I don' think I can remove the metal ring that easily, I tried applying PB Blaster several time and used a fine slotted screwdriver to try to pry it off but no luck. Is that the only way to get the new boot on? I purchased the complete poly kit from Summt Racing.

Maymyvetteliveforevr

I tried to pry the metal ring off but was unsucessful, so I used a air chisel and a very low setting and managed to cut/pry it off.

cache1

You da man! This is just what I needed becuse Im in the exact same situation. Thanks for posting!

jb78L-82

Yes, the lower ball joint experiences much higher forces than the upper ball joint but since you are going through all the trouble to remove the boot, I would just replace the whole upper ball joint with a quality unit like moog since with 50,000 miles, I assure you there is some wear on that ball joint. I replaced my upper ball joints on my 78 back in the 80's with 40,000 miles on it and, yes, it was displaying some wear on the upper ball joints. Remember cars back in the 70's were intended to last 100,000 miles and that was it. At 50,000 miles most parts back then in the suspension would be showing signs of wear................

leadfoot4

Not to be overly critical of the OP, BUT...…. You probably went through a LOT of effort to get the boot retainer off the arm, more effort than it would have been to simply buzz the rivets off with the air chisel, and remove the retainer intact. You could have then reinstalled the retainer, with the new boot in place, and used grade 8 bolts, to put it all back together. However, since you have it that far apart, I would say that the old axiom, "since I was already in there", most definitely applies here, and if it were me, I'd replace the ball joints.