1985 Corvette L98/Auto

I'm working on replacing the front upper and lower ball joints on my '85, and I'm stuck. I'm hoping someone could help me out.
I checked the archives and it came up with a few answers, but I still haven't found the answer to this one.

I got the upper ball joint out. I drilled the rivets until the balljoint popped off, but the rivets are still in the A-arm. How do I get the rest of the rivet out of the A-arm? Tapping doesn't seem to work, I was hoping there was a trick to this, because it seems like drilling them all out will take hours.

any ideas?

 

By "Tapping" I assume you mean, administering a light mechanical shock,,,, Not cutting threads.

During the swaging process of the rivit at the factory, the shaft size of the rivit tends to enlarge to fill the rivit hole in the A-frame forging, very tightly in some cases. Select a drift punch slightly smaller than the rivit hole and GET A BIGGER HAMMER.

 

you are correct

 

BMFH

 

and as Strike three already mentioned, "a good punch!"

 

You could drill out the remaining rivet with a slightly larger drill bit. NOT full speed, just a low speed to get it working around in there and then push with a little force and some will start to come out on the other side. With that remaining amount you could then use a punch or a pair of needle nose vice grips to grab onto and pull out what you can. Really though a drill bit should get out what's there.

 

I had the exact same problem this weekend. What I did, because a 5 pound sledge hammer was not working, was I ground the rivet heads flush with the ball joint flange then I used a chisel between the A-arm and the flange of the upper ball joint and worked the ball joint off the rivets. This left about 1/4 inch of rivet sticking up. I then used the ball joint installation tool (the "C" shaped press) to press the rivets flush with the A-arm. I then ground off any mushrooming of the rivet. Then I used a 3/16 socket and a 1/4 to 3/8 socket adapter (to spread the load) and positioned this over the rivet and once again used the press to push the rivet out some more. Finally I used a short 3/16 bolt and the press to push the rivet all the way out.
I know this sounds tedious but after hours of trial and bending punches and bolts this is what worked and I was able to do the other side in about ten minutes.
My biggest problem was pressing the lower ball joints back in. They wanted to **** to one side part way through. Finally I got a big breaker bar on the install tool and just cranked away and they went in but it was nerve racking.
If you are thinking why didn't he just pull out the lower A-arm and just use a press. Well I started to do that but you have to pull the motor mount brace to get one of the bolts out and I just didn't wanted to get that deep into it.

 

Drill a hole through the rivet, use a bit that will fit inside the shaft of the rivet without breaking out of the shaft. this will help to relieve some of the pressure created when the shaft expanded during peening.

 

Thanks for the tips... The one suggestion about drilling then hammering seems to work. I ground it flush to the a-arm with an air grinder. Still takes a while though. But I can't seem to find a better way to do it. Its taking me a few hours to just change the one upper ball joint.

As for the lower ball joint, I used the press I rented from autozone, pressed the old ones out, and the new ones in- took about 1/2 hour per side (which I thought was pretty fast). The old lower ball joints fell to pieces when I pressed it out (I was told they were shot).