VetteAholicC4

Here I am about to change out my ball joints, I drill out the tops of the rivets(You know GM, oh how they love rivets) I'm thinking it's going to be a piece of cake.....all I did was manage to unbolt the castle nut from the upper ball joint LOL...and now I'm stuck.

So here I am asking for help and tips on how to tackle this job!!??

(Both lower and upper)

Tony A.

Planning on doing my front end late summer. Unsure what I've got ahead of me, difficulty wise.

I have a couple links here to articles that may be of some use...

http://www.ehow.com/how_7649253_repl...rvette-c4.html

http://www.smokinvette.com/corvettef...ad.php?t=18926

VetteAholicC4

Power tools may help...something I don't have!

And thanks for the links.

VetteAholicC4

I finally took one factory upper ball joint off, only to find out that more drilling is required to adapt the new ball joint with the bolts and screws...will probably take my control are to some place with a nicer drill.

littlesk8cracker

ya the uppers are a royal PITA! getting the old rivets out took me and my dad about 2 days. putting the new ones in is easy as cake. the old ones are easy to get out and in if you have the tool. you can rent or borrow one from advance auto

Cutter1

If by hand block it up on wood and use hammer and punch to drive out the pieces.
Me I use a air chisel punch.

jaa1992

I took my upper and lower A-Arms to the machine shop.
They replaced the bushings in the upper with ones I supplied. drilled out the old ball joints.
Lower they pressed out the old and pressed in the new ball joints.

It wasn't much to have them done IIRC.

VetteAholicC4

For a DIY, this is the best method I've found...........soo I learned a little late into the project when my neighbor came to the aid lol.


I've found this method to work the best(After having 3 drill bits break inside the freaking rivets....sure delayed the drilling)

Drill the rivets until they are even with the surface of your control arm. Once to that point, block the underside of your upper control arm with a piece of wood, now have at it with a flat punch and BFH(sledgehammer lol) Originally I was completely drilling into the rivets and all the way down, why the drill bits were snapping.

Big thanks to my neighbor that came to the aid with some power tools. I will be buying him a new set of drill bits tomorrow to replace the 3 I broke :x.

Here is a pic of what I do best...........take on the challenge and hope I don't screw it up, I sure to plan to take the lower ball joints to someone!!!......or we'll see hahaha




P.S. turns out these damn aftermarkets upper ball joints, not only are the bolts thicker.....why I drilled!!!! But it turns out the freaking base is also alot wider! I will have to grind it down to fit it in!!! -.-

jaa1992

Thats why I used Moog ball joints for my replacements. They fit perfectly.

j-wireman

I have a ball joint grease boot with a pinhole in it that's only going to get worse. My questions are:

Is there a how-to or "sticky" anywhere about this operation?

Is it even worth all the hassle and down-time to do this myself, or should I just take the car to someone (that also does alignments)? What is the cost?

VetteAholicC4

I ended up buying another upper ball jonit set from auto zone, these actually freaking fit perfectly!!!!!!!!!! Project done, again my awesome neighbor came to the aid.
Upper or lower?? I don't plan on doing the lower myself and I just got done with my upper...biggest PITA is punching out the rivets.

jaa1992

Look at blackharleyman's suspension rebuild posts for a "how to"

If you want minimal downtime contact vette2vette and see if they still have the NOS A-Arms. Order them, when they arrive do the replacement yourself or take parts to your favorite shop. It will be less of a hassle and the same or less in expense.

9T3VETTE

This is the route i'm going....Must easier to repalce control arms and they have OEM GM balljoints as well as new OEM control arm bushings. Price-wise, it may be cheaper then buying MOOG units and replacing by yourself.

http://www.corvetterecycling.com/category_s/436.htm

PLRX

Done it four times, works like charm and faster.

Remove UPC.

Grind UBJ's rivets' heads out.

Remove UBJ.

Grind or cut the excess of rivet off the UPC. Try not to grind the aluminum.

Punch out the old rivet.

Install new UBJ and torque to 13 ft lbs.

Install UPC.

Torque UPC bolts to frame to 37 ft lbs.

Torque UBJ to knuckle to XX lbs ft (look the FSM or HM).

Grease new UBJ.

Torque front wheel to 100 lbs ft.

KenMathisHD

Sorry to raise an old thread, but PLRX from where do you get the upper and lower front joints you used? Needing to replace both sets of front joints and wanting to make sure I get a proper fitting part for both

kael

I'm assuming you mean where to get the correct ball joints, head over to rockauto.com, they will have many choices. Many choose Moog, I went with MAS joints, cost about 1/4. Not a racer....yet.

KenMathisHD

Yea, from the posts it seems that some of the joints that claim to be "OEM standard" aren't the right fit. The MAS joints fit pretty well for ya?

kael

Yep, so far so good.

KenMathisHD

Looks like I'm going with MAS for the time being, it saves almost $200 when compared to the Moogs. Is there really that much of a difference between the two? I didn't think the joints would effect the ride or performance that much but then again I'm new to all this so *shrug*

KenMathisHD

Oh! Since I'll probably be grinding off the rivets, what are the specs for them or can I/should I replace them with nuts and bolts and be done with rivets?