upper ball joint help

[chris032188]

This may be a dumb question, but my upper ball joints are riveted in. If I grind them out can I replace the riveted style with bolt in or do I have to change whole arm?

 

[Rock Hard Concrete]

Aftermarket ball joints have studs you bolt a nut onto. Depending on your truck, you may be able to find new control arms with the bj already installed. But yes you are correct, you grind down the mushroomed rivet heads, being careful not to grind the arm. Punch out, replace with new joints.

 

[454cid]

This may be a dumb question, but my upper ball joints are riveted in. If I grind them out can I replace the riveted style with bolt in or do I have to change whole arm?

Grinding or drilling the factory rivets out is exactly what you need to do. You'll get nuts/bolts with the new ball joints. I find it's usually low grade hardware and replace it with SAE Grade 8, or metric 10.9 and then torque to spec, according to the bolt size and use Loctite. The factory manual lists a torque spec that's higher then the hardware can handle, so I use a chart that goes by size.

 

[evilunclegrimace]

If you have a 4X4 with aluminum wheels, make sure that the bolt heads are on top of the Ball joint with the threads facing down so that the nut bears on the underside of the control arm.

 

[GoToGuy]

If there riveted, also implies there original installed.

 

[chris032188]

If there riveted, also implies there original installed.

It's possible, I'm unsure tho because the boot is blue which screams aftermarket to me, but I don't know Chevys that well.

 

[454cid]

It's possible, I'm unsure tho because the boot is blue which screams aftermarket to me, but I don't know Chevys that well.

Could be aftermarket control arms.

 

[Caman96]

Many still come riveted.

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[chris032188]

I have a feeling it's the mevotech on there

 

[Caman96]

I have a feeling it's the mevotech on there

How do the bushings look? If good, just drill out the rivets and replace ball joints, I’d us Mevotech TTX personally.
The original rivets from what I hear are insanely hard to drill out, I drilled out rivets on a new set in 10 minutes, but using new Cobalt drill bits/oil.