On Wed, March 15, 2006 4:06 pm, JameyWelch@freightliner.com wrote:
>
> 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?
IIRC the holes in the arms are less than 1/2".
> 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.
When you pull the knuckle you should have fantastic access to the tops of the
rivets. There shouldn't really be anything obstructing them. They're much
softer than the control arm so don't worry about damaging the arm, you'll
know if you hit it with the drill.
> 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?
Why not remove the knuckle and hang it on some wire off to the side? Since
you're doing both I don't see why you'd seperate one at a time and deal with
the knuckle being in the way. IMHO it's easier to remove the whole thing at
once but the way you're saying should work just as well if that's how you'd
like to do it.
> 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!
Good luck!
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