disassembling upper and lower control arms

[baclay9]

I got them off of my 83 C10 but am not exactly sure how to get the upper ball joint out or the pivot shafts and bushings out.do you just press them out and iff so what do you press on. Thanks for any help you can give me.

By claypool782 at 2010-05-28
By claypool782 at 2010-05-28
By claypool782 at 2010-05-28

[baclay9]

Bump

[RandyP]

Is this what the top of your c-arm looks like for the ball joint? If so, you have to grind those three heads off, rivit style stuff there. New ball joints come with bolts and such. The ball joints will literally fall out once the 3 fastners are removed. Ok, maybe fall out after a blow with a hammer.

[baclay9]

Ok, the ball joint part was kindof a dumb question. After washing the top to the control arm I was able to see the rivets.

Anyone have any input on the pivot shafts?

[RandyP]

I believe those need a press to get out and install the new ones. You can load up all the pieces and run to a local mechanic shop and they'll do it for you for a small fee (easy since you have it all apart, they might do it for free if you carry in donuts).
I have seen home made solutions using big C clamps and other stuff. I've also seen home solutions make people lose digits and large amounts of blood. I'm not real confident in my answer though, suspension work is a little over my head. Basically it is what I pay my techs to do as I watch while smoking and drinking coffee.

[73chevyman]

hahahaha randy p sounds like what I'd be doing watching a machinist do the work for me cause I like my fingers and don't need a blood transfusion anytime soon lol... if you have it apart i would just take it to your local machinist and have them take them out and press the new ones in....

[baclay9]

Originally Posted by RandyP

I believe those need a press to get out and install the new ones. You can load up all the pieces and run to a local mechanic shop and they'll do it for you for a small fee (easy since you have it all apart, they might do it for free if you carry in donuts).
I have seen home made solutions using big C clamps and other stuff. I've also seen home solutions make people lose digits and large amounts of blood. I'm not real confident in my answer though, suspension work is a little over my head. Basically it is what I pay my techs to do as I watch while smoking and drinking coffee.

I have a press I just wasn't real sure how to go about it. I am sure once they are cleaned up good I will have a better idea of how to press them out.

[JW76]

The lower ball joint needs to be pressed out and a new one pressed in. For the upper you need to grind and pop the rivets out and then bolt in a new upper ball joint. The cross shafts are a pain. For those bushings you can't really press them out because the inner metal sleeve gets frozen to the shaft. When you press them it tries to pull the rubber through the outer shell of the busing and in the process it bends the control arm in on itself since the metal is just a u-shape. If you want to press them perhaps you should weld a small metal bridge there so the arms doesn't bend. I am going to try and burn the rubbers out get the cross shaft out the use a grinder to cut through the inner metal sleeve of the bushing and use a screw driver to pry it off. I want to leave the outer shells in the arm since my new bushings don't come with outer shells.