90 GMC IFS Ball Joints

[old school truck dude]

Working on my 90 GMC Sierra 1/2 ton IFS.. Any suggestions on how to get these great big rivets out of the lower ball joint..? I was able to get the rivets out of the upper ball joint after alot of drilling and pounding, but these rivets in the bottom ball joint are much bigger and just will not move. Am I going to have to torch them out?

[Chevy Racer]

Air chisel and sharpen it. Usually peals the top right off and the put a punch bit in the air chisel and beat them out with it.

[SteeeveD]

I usually drill out the center of the rivets with a few drill bits. I start with a 1/4" and then 5/16", after that I'll get out the chisels and hammer or just the air hammer with a sharp chisel .

[old school truck dude]

Air chisel and sharpen it. Usually peals the top right off and the put a punch bit in the air chisel and beat them out with it.

OK bring compressor, we old school primitive over here

[Hammerlane]

4 1/2"   Grind/cut the heads off one or both sides.. punch them out.

[domedirty2]

Cut an x in the top of the rivet with a die grinder then a sharp air chisel peels them off pretty easy you may have to do the bottom also and spread tha control arm open if they will not punch out   I have seen a few really bad ones good luck

[domedirty2]

If you try a torch be careful the control arm is thinner than the rivet.  Don't melt the holes out of round

[old school truck dude]

The rivets will not knock out, period. I wasted alot of time and effort heating them up and pounding... The way to do these is cut the ball joint off, then WASH the top rivet heads off and WASH the part out that is left sandwiched in between.

In order to wash steel away, you first get a fair flame going, then turn the oxygen up till it starts to whistle and nearly blow out. Don't start with a whole lot of acytelene, go easy till you get the idea and have good control of it.

On a torch with 3 knobs, the lower oxygen knob is always turned all the way on. Crack open the acytelene and the oxygen knob at the lever and strike it. Small to medium flame with very sharp pinpoints and no fluttering. Then open the knob at the lever till it starts to whistle some. Use it like a broom, wipe at the metal till it starts to peel away.

DO NOT PUSH THE OXYGEN LEVER UNLESS YOU'RE HIGHLY EXPERIENCED AT THIS OR YOU WILL SLICE RIGHT THROUGH EVERYTHING

When washing like this, you can see the part you don't want to mess up. The metal will not weld together unless you get the entire area too hot. If this happens, just stop and let it cool then go at it again. Once you have a good gap opened up in there, you can start cutting again and blow the metal up into the control arm, then fish the slag out with a screwdriver or whatever. Dont bother beating on these rivets, it just makes it alot harder going back together because you have to squeeze the control arm back together to hold the ball joint, and beating causes it to distort and separate.

The other side will go much easier now that I got it figured out  

[domedirty2]

Wow good to know.  I will try it out. Last time I had a hell of a mess.