Removing ball joints with rivets in 6 minutes!

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Suburban Ranch

3 жыл бұрын

Easy way to remove the rivets on the 1990 GMC K1500 GMT400

Пікірлер: 113

@jmitch6764 10 ай бұрын

Drilling tip for steel - rpms slow as you can with as much pressure as is safe for the bit. high speed smears steel and makes it harder and dulls your bit.

@daz4312 Жыл бұрын

Been a metalsmith for 45 years. Thanks so much for demonstrating admirably how to properly drill a larger hole in a piece of metal by gradually stepping up the size of the drill bit. Can't tell you how many times I have seen people grab the biggest bit and just try to power it through a thicker piece of metal. They get so impatient, frustrated, and angry and all they leave is some scratches and burn the temper out of the bit, rendering it useless. Slow is your friend when cutting or drilling metal. And yes, the further down you drill the rivet, the easier it is to knock the head off. Great video! Thankfully I've had the ball joints in my truck replaced a couple times before and they are bolted in now!!

@ronaldsteveson76 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for trying a different way on the other side then showing the better way 👍

@fd9431 Жыл бұрын

Impressive drills appeared cut into rivets easy. Appreciate you posting the vid.

@hawkdsl 3 жыл бұрын

Another technique that I used on those was to cut an X on the head with a cut off wheel, and just use the punch with the air chisel to pop them out. Worked like a charm. (I have the same truck).

@vincentwasney1768 Жыл бұрын

I feel like that would make this 3x quicker.

@hawkdsl Жыл бұрын

@@vincentwasney1768 Honestly, maybe 15 minutes a side... and there is no heat to warp and soften the A-Arms metal. I am surprised he didn't know this technique.

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

We tried many methods, the method we used in the video worked best for us!

@walterkersting9922 Жыл бұрын

I might try that on the other side.

@trailman20 11 ай бұрын

That's what I do

@AdamScoots247 11 ай бұрын

I appreciate someone out there providing a different method than cutting. I wanted to get some spring hangers off a frame at the junkyard, and most junkyards to not allow anything that sparks. Cutting or torching is not an option! Hopefully it goes well and I dont waste my time, if it works I should be saving about 250 dollars buying the only available aftermarket option.

@tedmankowski5490 3 ай бұрын

Best removal method that I've seen.

@John_Ridley 11 ай бұрын

"never have to deal with these rivets again" Yeah now you need to deal with rusted solid bolts instead :) Last week I had to do two ball joints on a car, one was riveted, the other bolted (had been replaced). I did the rivets the way you did here, the bolts I got one out with an impact but the others no luck that way so I cut the nuts+bolts close to the flange with a cutoff wheel and they dropped out.

@easonjones3676 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing great video I am glad you did not do a video like some suppose to be real tech showing how to replace one that is no longer riveted in that had been replaced before..

@frankoneyjr.4515 5 ай бұрын

Great video !

@lmorales9319 3 жыл бұрын

Gracias x su tiempo de explicar el video no entiendo mucho ingles pero sólo verlo dios te bendiga

@alipescador2348 Жыл бұрын

Exelente amigo gracias lo felicito

@juanalmaraz1980 Жыл бұрын

The easiest way I have found is to replace the whole control arm everytime I replace ball joints ...is more expensive but you get new bushings and joints as well

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@jta361 Unfortunately, new control arms for the 4wd trucks are not available.

@aboutmyfathersbusiness8324 2 жыл бұрын

Almost the same here...I keep the arm in the car; drill 1/4 all the way through, 3/8.. 3/4 of the way and 7/16 level to the arm plate. They come out rather easy with a 3/8 punch.

@bigbrotheriswatching2680 2 жыл бұрын

Do you drill from bottom or top? Wanting to keep arm in car because I don't have any replacement bushings for it, and old ones might crack if I remove it. But I don't have a fancy lift. Can I come in from the top you think?

@Chubbza5 2 жыл бұрын

@@bigbrotheriswatching2680 Yes, that's what I did. You can use a straight punch attachment in the air chisel too instead of beating a bolt into it. If they're really stuck hit the bottom of the rivet a few times with the air chisel, off center like you're trying to "spin" the rivet. That breaks it loose usually and makes it easier to punch out. I did this with it attached to the frame and put a jack stand under the A arm to hold it in place.

@kennyalgeo6194 Жыл бұрын

This comment/video saved me multiple days of drilling after I was trying to jam a 1/2’’ bit though those suckers for 4 hours. Thank you!

@mrmasterpeels 8 ай бұрын

If you had a cutoff grinder and hammer punch bit with your air hammer, the job can be done in minutes. Crosscut the head 2 or 3 times. Hammer off the head. Then, hammer out the bolt. Put a jackstand under the control arm to absorb the hammer impact.

@SuburbanRanch 8 ай бұрын

We tried doing it with just the air hammer, it was not powerful enough!

@jsumm5240 Ай бұрын

Yeah your good. Thank you

@Galahadfairlight Жыл бұрын

You can do it even quicker than this by leaving your drill in its drawer! Get a small Angle Grinder with a metal slitting disc, and cut deep X's into the tops of the rivets. Then get the air chisel out and it will do the same job.

@donovanhandley7936 Жыл бұрын

Currently going through the same process except with the control arm still on the car. The aftermarket ball joint (Mevotech) actually has larger bolts than the factory rivets, so I actually needed to drill the holes in the arm to 31/64th. These rivets are very tough and will need a nice set of drill bits to get through.

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@Donovan Handley Interesting, we didn’t have to drill the holes any bigger. But yes, the rivets are a bear!

@donovanhandley7936 Жыл бұрын

@@SuburbanRanch Yeah it was strange. The original ball joint had smaller holes, but all good now!

@C0Y0TE5 9 ай бұрын

The plastic on my Mervotech control arms for a 2011 Ranger did not even last 5000km before failing. I went to Ford for OEM and paid only a couple dollars more.

@lanzecki 10 ай бұрын

The drill work (stepping up sizes ) is great work. But, angle grind the rivet heads off and air hammer the rivets out.

@SuburbanRanch 10 ай бұрын

Tried the air hammer, it couldn’t pound the rivets out.

@rafaelvasquez3566 4 ай бұрын

Excellent 👌😅😅

@e-racer4673 8 ай бұрын

You can’t say that it’s six minutes to change bowl joints because you have to add in the fact that you had to take the wheel & the lower A-frame off to even get to it so it took a little longer than six minutes is what I’m getting at. myself, I blow the heads off with a torch.

@user-gn5uy6lx7z Жыл бұрын

I have the same problem with my 1997 Dodge Dakota. For some reason the factory decided to use these rivets instead of bolts and nuts which are what the new upper and lower ball joints come with. I forsee a lot of work and nothing is easy for sure. I am not going to remove the upper and lower ball joints because I am not a mechanic by any means and that looks like it would be tricky. So, what I was thinking is score the rivets on the top side with a metal cutting disk and then just use my air chisel to remove the pieces. After removing the pieces I plan on grinding down what's left to be punched out. What do you think? Is my thinking about right?

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@William That should do the trick

@tbituner 2 жыл бұрын

So I'm rebuilding most of my front end and I am stuck on these lower ball joints. I was feeling all proud of myself getting this far since I'm not a mechanic but man these rivets are a pain! I don't know if it's because I don't have an air chisel, but my normal hammer and chisel isn't cleanly knocking the heads off like in your video. It's more sheering them off and leaving the bottom of the heads behind like they're welded on. Maybe my drill hole was too small? Went out and got a 7/16 like you said and I'll put some more work in. Hopefully that works because I've been at a stand still for 3 weeks at this point. I'll drill these all the way through if I have to and hopefully I'm centered up well while doing it and don't ruin the arm.

@SuburbanRanch 2 жыл бұрын

@Richard Young Yeah.. rivets can be a pain. The air chisel we have is really inexpensive at harbor freight and has come in really handy. www.harborfreight.com/medium-barrel-air-impact-hammer-61244.html

@bigbrotheriswatching2680 2 жыл бұрын

I paid $17 for mine at harborfreight, run it with a pancake compressor and it does alright. Don't forgot the quick connect fitting.

@tbituner 2 жыл бұрын

@@bigbrotheriswatching2680 I actually just got the last rivet out last weekend lol. So now both lower joints are out and I can start repainting before the new stuff goes on.

@bigbrotheriswatching2680 2 жыл бұрын

@@tbituner howd ya get them out? Did you drill in from the top without removing the arm? That's what I'm about to try

@tbituner 2 жыл бұрын

@@bigbrotheriswatching2680 yes I didn't use any fancy tools once the head was off just a hand drill with the control arm still attached, supported by a jack stand so the torsion bar didn't absorb all the impact while trying to whack them out. In this video he uses 7/16 but based on my experience I wouldn't recommend that because it is almost the exact size of the hole in the control arm. So if you aren't EXACTLY on center or don't go perfectly straight down you will eat away at the control arm not just the rivet. I may have done that a little on the first arm so I'm nervous on how it will go back together. For the second arm though, I got the two drill bit sizes below 7/16, the strong ones of course meant to drill through thick steel. So I would just alternate between the two sizes back and for, vacuum out the shavings each switch until I got almost a full 3/4 through the rivet. Then I placed a spare short steel bolt in that hole and just whacked it as hard as I could until it popped out. Removed the second set perfectly that way. To get the heads off I used a cutting wheel and made 3 cuts instead of the usual 2 to make an X, seemed to make hammering the head off with a chisel by hand much easier. Maybe it was just because more heat was getting into the head so it was more eager to deform and sheer off.

@richbiddlecome2300 9 ай бұрын

what you showed is the easy part. Now get the control arm of the truck?

@SuburbanRanch 9 ай бұрын

Removing the upper and lower control arms on an 88-98 OBS Chevy K1500 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aNWimdGB1MnVnWw.html

@crpth1 2 жыл бұрын

Geez! The "complicometer" was really turned ON in full power! LOL 😂 Spare hands, control arm out of the vehicle, drill, air chisel, place to work, tools etc. In short everything set to be easy, fast and simple. And, even then made it so complicated! If going the drill bit way just get an appropriate size dill bit and drill the rivet head out. It's that simple. No need for the air chisel. But since you have an air chisel, than you don't need the drill bit! ;-) Either case with all that at hand. Just use the air chisel to pull out the rivets. It's faster and simpler. Simultaneously you can skip the punch and sledge hammer...

@SuburbanRanch 2 жыл бұрын

@crpth1 Not sure if you’ve done it or got lucky when you did. We tried to just knock the head off without drilling or putting an X in the head of the rivet, didn’t work. Also we tried using just the air chisel to knock it out once we got the head off, no luck. The rivet mushrooms out in the middle locking it in place. We tried multiple ways, this was the easiest way we came up with.

@Mike_Can_Fix-it Жыл бұрын

@crpth1, that worked for you? Wow, thats unbelievable!! You had better thank the good Lord for Him bestowing magic upon you lol. I have an Ingersoll Rand '7x' rivet gun which can also be used, depending on implement, air chisel, hammer (which essentially what a rivet gun is to begin), air punch etc.... the 'X' denotes the power it is able to produce. 3x, only for aluminum rivets, 5x is the most common as it does any rivet up to 5/16" dia. 7x is nick named the thumper as it will very handily without thinking of breaking a sweat, will punch through. 009" 7076 T-7 sheet aluminum which is common size for lower airframe (sub buttock line 0 on fuselage) skin. 9x..... not sure if that exists. I heard rumors that someone spotted one but, his hand broke before he could get a picture

@jimb2785 8 ай бұрын

Six minute video but I don't think it took only six minutes to do that....haha....especially if you want to patiently do it right....thanks for the video!

@WeRanyone714 Жыл бұрын

So would you recommend we take the control arms off?

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@WeRanyone714 You don’t need to, we were doing other suspension work at the same time.

@albertrivera5443 4 ай бұрын

Can you drill top to bottom? If you dont want to take off the a arm .. got a coil spring in the front

@SuburbanRanch 4 ай бұрын

As long as you center your drill bit, you should be able to drill from either side.

@albertrivera5443 4 ай бұрын

@@SuburbanRanch great!! Thanks for the response !! 👍🏼

@Dagrizzb Жыл бұрын

Whats parts and part number are your lower ball joint replacements?

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@Cruz Garza All the part numbers we used are in the description of our front end video. Link is here: 88-98 Chevy K1500 front end rebuild with Mevotech TTX ball joints and tie rods kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jLdmjJiH1Lu1cqs.html

@olivedrabgarage6243 2 жыл бұрын

Not a criticism..just curious why you didn't use your air hammer to drive the rivets out? I have a WW2 truck that's over 80yrs old and I've been told to use an air hammer to get the rivets out as most fuse with rust over the years and hitting with a big hammer can crack the cast parts and bend the frame.

@SuburbanRanch 2 жыл бұрын

@Olive Drab Garage We tried, our air hammer would not drive them out

@olivedrabgarage6243 2 жыл бұрын

@@SuburbanRanch ahhh...bugger. I hope mine come out or I'm going to have to up the stakes with a plasma cutter.

@sdriza Жыл бұрын

@@SuburbanRanch you need a bigger air hammer

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@sdriza Yes, a bigger air hammer might do the trick!

@sdriza Жыл бұрын

@@SuburbanRanch I'm high on long barrel air hammers right now. I was fighting with a stuck axle last week and finally bought one over the weekend... Loving it - been trying to use it for anything - can't believe I waited so long to get another one. Hope all is well and I enjoyed the video.

@jackbenson4966 Жыл бұрын

Do I have to drill into them to get them out because I have chiseled both sides of the top ball joint off and still can’t get the rivets to come out

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@Jack Benson That’s what I would recommend

@scotthall3644 Жыл бұрын

Cut off wheel on 4 1/2inch grinder takes 5 minutes

@bioshock1778 Жыл бұрын

Took me all day to remove the rivets on my car. The press wouldn't even work. So we ended up drilling them out. Thought the air hammer would work but it didn't. It was a nightmare.

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@BigShock17 The rivets can be really tough, glad to hear you got them out!

@sherryalsmarvdashti1930 2 жыл бұрын

Going change tire rods n balll jointd

@Mike_Can_Fix-it Жыл бұрын

Hard metals, low speed high prx. Softer material, high speed low pressure. Anyways. .... Thank you for the video. I've a 1998 C1500 I am about to R&R ball joints. So, sincerely....thank you. What were your symptoms? My 'Burban is wandering at freeway speeds, front tires (obviously) are wearing HORRIBLY on the inboard shoulder. To me, that screams "BALL JOINTS!!!"

@AFatherToTheFatherless 11 ай бұрын

More like tie rods

@jtr2179jeremy Ай бұрын

That looks really easy when the control arm is off the vehicle. How about when it’s on the vehicle?

@SuburbanRanch Ай бұрын

Same process on the truck, just less room!

@waxren922 Жыл бұрын

We have a case of it can't be tight if it's liquid

@kaylebbronks2720 2 жыл бұрын

Lol on my Chevy we had to blow them out with torch

@cryptzogstickybumps3754 2 жыл бұрын

Has anyone used a 3/8 instead of a 7/16 bit? I am considering buying some bits, but the 7/16 size doesn't come in the smaller sets, but 3/8 is pretty common. Kinda don't want to spend money specifically to buy the 7/16 bit if I don't have to. The difference only seems to be about 0.0625"

@Chubbza5 2 жыл бұрын

No you don't have to drill all the way to the edges of the rivet. Drilling more just gives the shank of the rivet more room to compress when you're trying to hammer it out. Use what ya got, get close enough to the OD of the rivet and you'll be ok. Make sure to drill as centered as possible, use lots of lube as they're hard AF!

@ryanrega3899 2 жыл бұрын

You could always “ream” the whole with a smaller bit to make up for the smaller size.

@cryptzogstickybumps3754 2 жыл бұрын

@@Chubbza5 I ended up getting a 3/8 and it worked very well. What ended up being key for me was to get a good fast drill and to get about 3/4 of the way through before hitting it with the air hammer.

@Alejandra-cv7rj Жыл бұрын

Unfortunately we tried alot of the methods used here but those rivets don't come out for us all the drill bits we purchased didn't work at all . After working on it for two days we will just replace the control arms we tryed to take it to a mechanics and the guys just said they wouldn't work on it

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@Alajandra Sounds like the rivets were really stuck for you!

@toywrench1 Жыл бұрын

Harbor Frieght Cobalt drill bits

@tonycotta6602 4 ай бұрын

Young fella it's easier to just use a cut off wheel cut an x in it then use a air hammer with a straight chisel knocks it off every time then punch out the rivets .

@codyoliver3293 Жыл бұрын

This method has not worked for us. Still going at it.

@SuburbanRanch Жыл бұрын

@Cody Oliver You have to work the rivets pretty hard

@ozkrpalminteri9431 5 ай бұрын

If u already have an air hammer, why don't u just use it to push the rivets down with the right chisel?

@SuburbanRanch 5 ай бұрын

We tried! It would budge with the air hammer

@kaylebbronks2720 2 жыл бұрын

Rivit on my Chevy so forge hardened you wasn't Gona drill them with any bits only blow torch we tried massive air hammers ECt

@blutorlz3 Жыл бұрын

Angle grinder with a cutoff wheel usually helps with these. Cut an x in the rivet head and then chisel them off if you ever have to do another set. I can do these faster than the pressed in ones on my GMC trucks.

@RCbasheracer Жыл бұрын

@@blutorlz3 so u put the chisel on the X cut and use hammer & flat head screwdriver to turn it ? Dumb question but need help.

@blutorlz3 Жыл бұрын

@@RCbasheracer use the chisel to shear off the four pieces of rivet left by cutting the x. No screwdriver used, just a big hammer and a cold chisel meant for metal. Just imagine your trying to chisel the entire head off. If you have a strong air chisel instead, you don’t even need the x cut…

@jerzykoodziej3079 2 жыл бұрын

Non sens. Get the control arm out and work with rivets! If I take out controle arm is faster mounting new one with ball joint! Take out ball joint without removing control arm! That problem.

@SuburbanRanch 2 жыл бұрын

@Jerzy Kolodziej You cannot buy new control arms for a k1500, gotta work with the originals. We are also replacing the bushings so it made sense to remove the entire control arm, but you can remove just the ball joint with the arm in the truck.

@jerzykoodziej3079 2 жыл бұрын

@@SuburbanRanch Wow. My daughter by first car. Old. Chevy Optra 2007 . On my opinion good deal but Nevers say never! I must change ball joint . End it's the problem: work with rivets ans buy the ball joint for 10$ or change lower arm with ball joint for 58$ ! Question- what's easly?

@SuburbanRanch 2 жыл бұрын

@Jerzy Kolodziej I would just buy a new control arm with the ball joint already replaced and new bushings

@xideathzapix 2 жыл бұрын

in aircraft when drilling rivets its not advisable to drill so deep. the material left in the hole is a direct indicator of how far off center the drill was and thus how far out off round the hole is. there is more lenience when installing new rivets but with bolts being the replacement fastener in this case there is a chance for movement and widening of the holes under stress. i would tell you to drill shallower, then using an 8oz hammer, strike the center hard a few times. if everything is correctly drilled, the head should pop off with just a few strikes. its better to finesse in this area than to take too much material out. then the shanks can be driven out with the hammer and punch or even a pin style set for the air hammer.

@SuburbanRanch 2 жыл бұрын

@billy sanders Our drilling was all encapsulated within the rivet shank. The hole was not damaged at all.

@eddiecruz2613 2 жыл бұрын

I have same truk but I found a whole lower arm replacement with ball joint alredy in for little over 60$ on ebay hell the ball joints itself sells at orielly from 55 $ seems it was way easier than having to drill and pound on it

@Mike_Can_Fix-it Жыл бұрын

When I was an A&P, when removing aluminum rivets..... I used 1 or 2 drill bit sizes smaller and I drlled full depth. Rarely did I have to use a punch to finish it off. And actually the opposite us true. You don't want to be stressing the material or inadvertently "hog out the hole" because of side pressure or a missed or off center strike. If you take care in drilling and pay attention it is the best method for fastener (rivet) removal

@mph5896 10 ай бұрын

Good thing its a truck then and not an aircraft.