Please HELP!! 99 4X4 Lower Ball Joints

I'm attempting to change my upper and lower ball joints on my 1999 4x4 Blazer and haven't had much luck. I've already got a couple nasty blisters from beating a hammer and chisel to rivets. I got one of the rivet's heads off on the upper ball joint and it came off very clean, easy to see the rivet to pop it through. Now on the bottom on the driver's side I got the two heads off on the right side of the ball joint using a grinder and drill and now i can't tell where the shaft of the rivet is to punch it through. Should I drill up from the bottom to get the ball joint rivet out? Any other suggestions for the rest of the ball joints? I'm still only on the driver's side!! Thanks in advance for any help.

Ignore the pain and smashed and blistered fingers.
Just think of all of the money you are saving doing it your self.:lol: :grinno:

It helps to drill threw the rivets with a smaller drill bit than the rivets.
On the one you can not see.
Get some good light and a good pair of specs.
There should be a round imprint of the rivet circle.
Or drill and punch out the other three rivers and it may show up better.

Also if you get stuck on anything else drop up in the how to section for ball joint replacement info.

Good luck
MT

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make it easy on your self just take them down to a machine shop and have them press them out they wont charge anymore then $25 i no thet for sure i used to work at a performance shop thats the best way

make it easy on your self just take them down to a machine shop and have them press them out they wont charge anymore then $25 i no thet for sure i used to work at a performance shop thats the best way

Reread his post.
He has it half way apart and is just having problem getting the rivets out.

It would be very hard to carry the car down to the local machine shop and figure out a way to get the car up on and into a press just to remove the ball joint rivets.
And how many machine shops would do it on a Sunday afternoon?:rofl: :lol: :lol2:

HAHA! Thanks MT. That was funny. I did end up getting the upper ball joint out. I used a dremel tool to grind an X in the rivet head. It made the chiseling a lot easier and the rivets popped out no problem. Now the lower ball joint is another story. I did the same thing as I did on the uppers but the rivets aren't visible. I got the heads off, but nothing is punching through. It's very weird. I actually started going from the bottom-up but it started to rain on me. I don't want to drill holes where I don't know exactly where the rivets are because the bolt holes won't line up. I guess I'll continue going from the bottom rivet heads up to see if I can't get the bastard out of there. I already broke the lower ball joint free and moved the steering knuckle out of the way so I could have easier access to the other rivets on the lower ball joint. I got all of the heads off, but can't punch the rivets through. I doesn't even look like there are any rivets. It's so weird, it's blended in perfectly with the metal around it. What should I do?

Keep looking.

Put a little dirt or grease or person blue or chalk on it and hit the ball joint a few times with a hammer.
On the other side drill threw the center of rivet first to aid on findding it and chopping off the head and make it lossen up better.

Good Luck
MT

So I went out there for a couple hours after work and the lower ball joint is still in there. I drilled from the bottom-up and went right through the middle of 3 of the rivets. Unfortunately I missed on one of them. I don't know how I'm gonna fix that. I still can't pound the bastards out. Should I just keep drilling with a bigger bit until the ball joint falls out? It's hard to pound the rivets up through the control arm when the vehicle is so close to the ground, there's not much swinging room. Thanks!

Drill bigger but keep under the rivet size.
I think they come out better when working from top side.
Good luck.
MT

ok, i'll be on vacation until the 8th. i'll be back with more updates later. thanks for all the help!!

You are welcome.

Drill bigger but keep under the rivet size.
I think they come out better when working from top side.
Good luck.
MT

I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since my lazy ass has gotten back to this damn truck. I've been working too much and the time is flying. Winter is creeping up way too fast. Anyways, I FINALLY got the lower ball joint out. Here's what I did. I got the drill out again and made another run through the rivets. I still couldn't get them to pound out with a punch. Finally I just got too pissed and took the punch and the 4 LB sledge, put the punch through the dome section of the control arm right next to the grease fitting, and slammed down on it a couple times. Two hits and the whole damn thing fell out. It was great!!!!!! Wish I would've thought about that 6 weeks ago! So I get the balljoints in and greased, put the brake shield and hub assembly in only to find that I put the wrong brake shield in. So off came the hub assembly and the two pain in the ass spots where the wire mounts to in order to get the correct shield in there. Now I've got everything back together as far as the hub assembly and ball joints (this is only on one side of course, I still have to do the passenger side, :banghead: ) At least I have a better idea of how to do it now. While doing this I noticed that my tie rods may need to be replaced. Is this difficult to do? I was thinking of taking the end off of the steering knuckle and the inner off of the pitman arm I think it's connected to on the inside. This doesn't seem like it would be too bad, considering what I just went through with the damn ball joints. If I remember, I'll take some pics of how I got the ball joints out and add them somewhere. Those were such a pain, but definitely worth the savings in money. Thanks again for all of your help!!!!

If you have done the ball joints the tie rods should be easy. I found it easiest to get both tie rod ends and a new sleeve. Romove the nuts on the tie rod the use a seperator tool and knock the off. You can set the new tie rods to the same length as the old. That gets you in the ball park. Bolt the new ones on and get an alignment when you are finished.