OT Dakota Ball Joints

I have a 97 Dodge Dakota. It started pulling to the right and would make a clunk noise when turning. I had it in for a oil change and had them check it, ball joints are getting bad. They said about $450 to replace them and align the front end. I have better places to use my $$, I can put them in myself. I borrowed proper tools for the job from a friend and started in today. The ball joints are riveted on. Have to grind off rivets and replace with bolts that come in the kit.I got the drivers side apart and ground off the bottom rivets and drilled a hole in 3 of the 4 and beat on them with a punch and finally got 2 out. NOT going to be a piece of cake! Not a lot of room to swing a hammer in there! I think I will try the air chisel tomorrow, I thought by drilling a hole in the rivet, it would make it easier to drive the rivet out, but if it's helping, it's not much. Wondered about heating the rivets and then driving them out, but the metal around them isn't that thick, afraid I will distort in and then nothing will line up to go back together. Good thing I'm off work till next Tuesday, it might take that long!!! Chris

The air chisel can take things apart that a hammer never will. Maybe try heating the steel around the rivet just a bit, not enough to make it red and then rattle away with the air chisel.

What works good on those rivets is to center punch and drill about 3/4 of the way through. Then take an old worn out air chisel bit and grind it to go inside the hole you drilled so that it pounds on the bottom of the hole and hammer away.

hey chris, good luck with the ball joint job. my jack is red, but i have a craftsman screwdriver just like yours with the green paint on it! napaguy

On my 89 Dakota, the ball joints, upper and lower press in and you need special tools to R/R.

Kent

When I replaced mine I ground off the rivets like you did, heated them and pounded them out with a drift.I also think the new ones were greasable. My friend had to do the upper I think it was because they were pressed in. He works for a Dodge dealer so he got the right tools. Mine is a 99, I was told they might have been covered under warrentry,but I never looked into it thought,. J