Ball Joint Question

From: JameyWelch@freightliner.com
Date: Wed Mar 15 2006 - 17:06:23 EST


I know everyone is probably sick of hearing about ball joints but I am
going to be replacing all 4 in the morning on a 99 2WD CC 318. I am a
little anxious about it and have a couple of questions before I start.
 
1. I have some titanium drill bits and I am thinking of drilling the
rivets out as I haven't heard anyone having good success with the air
hammer and chisel. What size drill bit should I use for this?
 
2. The top joints look like they are going to be easy to drill
out/grind off. If I support the weight of the truck with a jack on the
lower control arm, how do I get to the bottom 4 rivets? Things are
really tight in there and I don't know how to get in there to get to the
rivets.
 
3. An idea one of my friends had was to separate the upper and lower
joints with the pickle fork, drill the top rivets out, replace with a
new ball joint, and then pivot the whole lower spindle up so that I
could get to the bottom rivets on the lower joint. Does this make sense
and sound reasonable?
 
Again, any advice would be appreciated as I have never done this before
but I feel like I can do this. Thanks for your time!
 

Sincerely,

Jamey

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