Right. I've done a search in the forum about ball joints, and nothing is covering my specific issue -- removing the original upper ball joints! I've been using really big hammers, chisels, drills, oils/lubrications and a lot of explitives, and NONE of it is getting these dang things out. What in the world is holding these things in??? I don't wanna use heat because I'm afraid that it would weaken the control arm. One of my military maintenance tricks is to drill through the entire rivet and then try to knock it out, making the rivet collapse on itself, but even that isn't working right now, and I don't want to drill the holes any bigger for fear of enlarging the original holes. Any ideas? A friend of mine wants to take a really big drill bit and take out the center of the ball joint!!! Help me save my truck from him! One thing I was wondering is this: if I were to find a way to press the old rivets out by force, would the rivet itself come out or is the concept of pounding on it to remove the ball joint along with the rivet at the same time?.
