<VV> Ball Joint Removal

[Byron Comp]

Hi All,

Well, the advice from a tech (Don, I think) from Clarkl's was a little different 
than others and was "spot on."  As he suggested, I first ground the top of the 
rivet off down flush with the top plate of the ball joint itself, then used a 
1/4" drill bit to drill through the rivet far enough to get below the bottom 
plate.  At that point using a chisel it was "relatively" easy to pry the ball 
joint off the rivets and out of the arm.  At that point the rivets could be 
knocked out of the arm using a center punch.  I then used graduated drill bits 
ending with a 5/16" to drill through the arm itself, since that's what he said 
the bolts sold with their replacement ball joint will require.

I've provided this much detail in case somebody else has to do it for the first 
time.  The shop manual was rather sketchy about the whole procedure.  Thanks to 
Harry, Mike and Bryan, along with several others who responded.

Byron


Message: 8
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2010 09:41:18 -0400
From: "Harry Yarnell" <hyarnell1 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: <VV> Ball Joint Removal
To: "Byron Comp" <byron.comp at yahoo.com>,    <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Message-ID: <8609F1A847D546FB83E20BC6C8F42F06 at harrydell02>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
    reply-type=original

You pretty well answered your own question. Chiseling also works. 
Replacement joints usually come with bolts.

Harry Yarnell
Perryman Garage and Orphanage
hyarnell1 at earthlink.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Byron Comp" <byron.comp at yahoo.com>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 9:02 AM
Subject: <VV> Ball Joint Removal




Since I'm a novice at restoring 'Vairs this may seem like a stupid question, 
but here goes. The upper ball joints on my '64 Monza CT seem to have been 
riveted in and the top of the rivets "peaned". Is this normal and what do I 
do to get them out so as to install new ones? It looks like I'll have to 
grind off the rivet head and then punch it out, leaving 4 holes into which I 
would insert bolts with the new joint. Will the upper ball joint from Clarks 
line up with the holes left where the rivets used to be?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Byron