Front Control Arm Ball Joints

Is there any special way to get these off of a stock set of upper and lower control arms?

hammer and chisle the tops. bottom need to be pressed in and out. some part stores do it. or there is a tool i used to do mine. its a big C clamp and some adapter thingys....

According to my book, the upper ball joints require a special tool or you can make something up out of a large bolt washer and socket to seperate them. Of course they don't tell you what sizes... The lower ball joint is press fit and you need to drill out some rivets too. Go and buy a Haynes Repair manual ($20-25.00) at most auto parts stores. Well worth the money.

77mali wrote:According to my book, the upper ball joints require a special tool or you can make something up out of a large bolt washer and socket to seperate them. Of course they don't tell you what sizes... The lower ball joint is press fit and you need to drill out some rivets too. Go and buy a Haynes Repair manual ($20-25.00) at most auto parts stores. Well worth the money.

The uppers have the rivets (thus a BFH and a chisle)

the lowers are pressed in and nothing else holds them in.

My mistake...must need glasses or just gettin old.

You got to use a 1/2 inch drill bit on the upper ball joint rivets after you have drilled the head off the rivet beat it off with a hammer and chisel. For the lower if you have a parts store near you that loans tools get the c clamp thing previously mentioned its called a ball joint service kit I think and use that or you can take the lower ARM off and take it to a shop and ask them to press out this way is probably way easier than the big clamp thingy

When my 73 was my daily driver I just air chiseled out the upper rivets and the new ones bolted in. As for the bottoms, a mechanic gave me a piece of pipe that the lower ball joint sits in nicely. He said to put the pipe under the end (closest to you) lower arm and rap the ball joint with a lump hammer til it comes out. Then put the new lower in, up from the bottom of course and put the pipe under it, nicely centered. Then just tap on the lower arm around the new ball joint.

Did it twice and it worked like a champ. Pretty easy actually.

Just my 2 cents.

Joe73 wrote:When my 73 was my daily driver I just air chiseled out the upper rivets and the new ones bolted in. As for the bottoms, a mechanic gave me a piece of pipe that the lower ball joint sits in nicely. He said to put the pipe under the end (closest to you) lower arm and rap the ball joint with a lump hammer til it comes out. Then put the new lower in, up from the bottom of course and put the pipe under it, nicely centered. Then just tap on the lower arm around the new ball joint.

Did it twice and it worked like a champ. Pretty easy actually.

Just my 2 cents.

Good advice but what the heck is a lump hammer? Is that a dead blow hammer?

When I did my '74 Malibu, I got the loaner tools from the local Auto Zone. Simple to get the lowers pressed out & back in. Top was the BFH and chisel like mentioned, on the rivets. The bolts that come with the new joints fit OK.
On my Elco project it was easy, with everything apart, and using my hyd press for the lowers.

A lump hammer is a technical term I've acquired some years ago from some older mechanics.

Its basically a 3 or 5 pound hammer with a short handle. Great for tight spaces. I used to have 2 of them until I did a paver patio in my yard, dont knwo where they ended up. LOL.

Ahhhh....We have those in my trade...we call them drilling hammers. 2 to 5 lbs...some look like mini sledge hammers (a bit longer handle) and then there are the ones w/ tapered ends on the business end, used for stone splitting & driving sharp things into thick objects. I Like that term though cause it's the kind of hammer than would give you some lumps if you're not paying attention.