68 Upper Ball Joints

[sons68stang]

Need some help. I'm trying to remove the upper ball joints on our 68 mustang, but these apparently have neved been replaced and still have the rivets in them. I have already grinded down the bottom of the rivets, but still can not get the ball joint out. I've tried banging them rivets from under the control arm and still can not get the rivets out. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[68stang351]

I drilled mine out.

Have fun. That sucked for me.

 

[CanyonCarver515]

There's going to be some serious amount of drilling to do and as stated before, this is no fun. Try to keep your drill to the rivets and not mangle the upper A-arm in the process.

Place the A-arm in a vise and go to town with the drill.

Tell us how you do!

 

[Grabber70Mach]

I left the control arms in the car, removed the spindle. Took a dremel tool with a cutting wheel and cut three relief cuts across the top of the rivit, one way then a couple the oposite way. Making a sorta tic-tac-toe pattern. Then took an air chisel to it, don't gouge down into the control arm though.

 

[D.Hearne]

Do yourself a favor and go buy new "A" arms. The old ones get weak with age and the new ones have the ball joints already installed along with the upper bushings. The price these go for, is not much different from buying the ball joints alone.