--- JameyWelch@freightliner.com wrote:
> 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?
Dang I cant remember the size....what I did do though
was grind flat leaving some behind so I could judge
the center better than when the whole head was off
completely and blending in with the surrounding shiny
surface. Once i drille din a bit finished grinding
and drilled the rest of the way.
>
> 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.
Top ones are easier each rivet goes through only 2
layers of metal balljoint and arm. I did move aside
the brake hose line and hung the hose and caliper
using some of those hooked rubber straps. I removed
the whole spindle before grinding anything to get to
them easier.
> 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?
I removed Spindle, I used some wedge fork thing on
first side with much struggle...on second side we
opted to use the counterweight of the spindle by
tapping on the lower balljoints bolt. The spindle
slid right off. I think the key is heat, we used the
same technique on bottom for marking the centers. we
did not drill them all the way but about 1/2 to 3/4 of
the way. There is 3 layers of metal for the lower
because the spindle tucks into a type of pocket or is
sandwiched into the end of the lower control arm. We
drilled and as soon as we reached that point hammered
each rivet out. Rather than drilling all then going
back and hammering which didnt work on first side.
Once we got the hang of it...what took us 7 hours to
do on saturday on driver side took 3 hours on Sunday
plus I redid my muffler braces which had broken from
rusting.
Sorry I talk so much.
Alberto Aguirre Jr
Houston TX
1998 5.2L V8 Dakota CC Sport
>
> 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
>
>
>
> .
> .
>
.------------------------------------------------------------------.
> | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML
> Meet in Colorado! |
> | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info:
> http://meet.dakota-truck.net |
>
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>
>
.
.
.------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! |
| Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net |
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