Ball joint replacement question

[Surffly]

Doing the ball joints on my truck.
Lower came out in two pieces with a rented press, but new ones should go in fine.

Upper on the other hand are giving me some grief.
I have been cutting the rivets, and got the plate out, but the "studs" will not drive out the bottom now that the rivets have no heads. Am I just not hitting them hard enough? Or is here a trick?

 

[mtnmankev]

In my experience, those rivets are in there tight. And often rusted.
Make sure the heads are 100% off, and I used an air chisel with a pointed tip to drive them. Depending on the taper of the tip, it might not drive them clear through, but if it'll get them started or about halfway out you should be able to use the hammer and drift punch to finish getting them out.
If you're doing them with the control arms still on the truck, you probably don't have enough swing to really put some force on the punch.

 

[350runner]

I still had to press mine out. Cut the had rivets the same side as the grease fitting is on and press out from the same side

 

[Surffly]

Everything is off the truck .

Day two of front end over haul.
Almost listed the truck on CL. "One project truck for beer, must tow away"

 

[Surffly]

Now if I could just the lower control arm bushings out...

 

[350runner]

Here ya go
How To Control Arm Bushing Removal at Home (witho…: http://youtu.be/SOlUrcXE-yc

 

[350runner]

You get em?

 

[Surffly]

Got one.
Quit for the night. Mostly done with the second.
Only thing left is one set of lower bushings, but I think I got he hang of them now.

Side note.
My truck doesn't have a front sway bar?
Worth it to install one? OEM or some thing different?

 

[350runner]

Yea big time I have one and a bushing was missing on one end. After I put new bushings it really changed the ride for the better. Though I wouldn't buy it new...

 

[Surffly]

They install on the top of the control arm like the original?

When I put them back into the spindle the upper control arm sits to low and touches the spindle.

 

[Surffly]

Never mind, I'm and idiot.

 

[GalaxyChief]

Sorry to bring this back from the dead.

I just wanted to post up a recent experience, as it was the first time I have done ball joints.

For the upper joints we removed the control arm from the Suburban. The first one we ground the heads of the rivets off as is seen in most youtube videos. We had a hard time knocking them back through the old joint plate and control arm
The second one we turned them upside down and carefully ground the bottom of the rivets off. Then used an air chisel to separate the old ball joint from the control arm and pull the remainder of the rivet out with the ball joint plate. This took less than half the time of the first more common practice.

I hope this little bit of info helps others who are looking to tackle this ass beater of a task for the first time.