Is there an easy way to remove the upper ball joints from the A arms? I drilled the rivet heads from the ball joint side of one arm, and was able to remove the ball joint. However, I'm not able to get the rivets out of the A arm. Is there an easier way to do this? Should this be done from the back side of the ball joint?

I'll be attacking this again on Saturday. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The rivets are soft, I use an air chisel to knock the heads off on top of the ball joint and then drive the rest out with a punch. A hand chisel and hammer will work just as good. Since you already have the ball joint off it would be easier to cut the rivets flush with the arm and then drive them out.

Philip

Thanks Phillip. I'll give the air chisel a shot on the second arm. Are there any tricks to doing it? Thanks again, Wes

Wes,
Lop off the 4 rivet heads on the ball joint side,then use the chisel to lift the ball joint off the arm this will leave the 4 rivets standing there.Take a hammer and give each one a sharp rap and they pop right out.You,ll be shooting rivets around the shop like 22 slugs. :D

Thanks for the replies guys. I caught a neighbor outside, who is also a Chevelle owner, and asked him how he removed the upper ball joints. He gave me a hand. We turned the control arms upside down and drilled the flat side of the rivets. We used 3 bits, 1/4 3/8 and 7/16. We were careful not to drill into the control arm. Using the 7/16 bit at a slow speed in a 1/2" drill, would ultimately spin the flat heads right off. From there, the round (ball joint side) rivet heads would tap right out. It took 20 minutes to remove the other ball joint and the remaining rivets on the other arm. I couldn't believe how easy it was. Thanks again for the replies.

i just replaced most of the front suspention in my 67 and i don't think there is an easier way. What i did was grinded the heads off the rivets then drilled the rest of the rivet out. It was a long project. Finding out that the lower ball joints in my car were pressed in was even a bigger project, but thats a different story.

I just did mine and there was a world of difference between the 2 sides. The drivers side I just ran an air chisel over the rivets and it practically fell out. The passenger side was a real bear. I chopped off the round heads, tried air-punching without success, eventually had to go after the heads on the back side and take them off and then it fell right out, the rivets were rusted so tight to the ball joint housing it was like they were welded in!

Cheers!