Anyone changed ball joints on rear trailing arms?

carl

carl

True Classic
Does anyone have first hand knowledge of unriveting the large ball joint assembly from the rear A-arms and installing replacement balljoints?

This is sort of being discussed on my thread about bent A-arms but I'm not sure that thread was read by anyone who can answer the above question.
 
carl said:
Does anyone have first hand knowledge of unriveting the large ball joint assembly from the rear A-arms and installing replacement balljoints?

This is sort of being discussed on my thread about bent A-arms but I'm not sure that thread was read by anyone who can answer the above question.
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Grind off the head and drill’em out!!
 
I want to know if it's as easy as it looks, grinding off the head and punching out the rivets and then using high strength bolts to reattach on another arm.
 
I have had these same thoughts, I spoke with Rapunzell about this and she also cautioned about the expanded rivets holding the arm assembly tight together. They may not come apart easily but I am very curious about your reporting on your experience doing so. It would seem that, prior to rivet removal, the arms that you want to use need further welding where they fit together to maintain their shape. But I am a "belts and suspenders" type of guy when I start modding cars. After I correct the same dents in my arms I was going to add some boxing walls to the arms to further strengthen them and then dream of having some made to spec out of chromoly tubing with new hubs out of billet aluminum as everything seems made of heavy pig iron!
 
well you only need to grind off the head on one side of the rivet...

Then you want to drill more or less on centre, but not critical with a small drill bit all the way thru, put in a larger bit, drill all the way thru...keep going...

once you get to a drill bit that is JUST breaking thru one side of the rivet and into the metal of the ball joint housing... you can stop drilling.

Then mount the arm in a vice, get a good drift and a good hammer, give it a few good whacks and the rivet will drive out...

then you need to get a grinder with a thin blade, and cut thru several small tack welds put there by the factory..

once you've done that , a couple of light taps from the hammer and the ball joint will twist out of the arm.

Now Fiat never supplied the ball joint as a replacement part... probably something to do with public liability should any sort of fastener apart from a hot compression rivet be used to re attach the ball joint to the arm...

having said that, I've found that an appropriate sized high tensile bolt and nyloc nut seems to do the job quite well....if you want to get fussy you can shave the head of the bolt thickness down a fraction so it ends up no taller than the original compression rivet.

SteveC
 
As I mentioned on your other thread. I've seen a air chisel used to quickly remove rivets after cutting a slot into the top. It might work here also. I've also seen many new replacement ball joints come with bolts/nuts to replace the stock rivets (for other vehicles).
 
Thanks Steve. I asked this because I can get straight used arms that have questionable ball joints and wondered if I could remove the good ball joints on my bent arms and reinstall them on unbent arms. Apparently it's doable.
 
The arms twist a lot more than what you would think... I did a batch of 6 arms a little while back, all looked OK/straight when I started, when all six had ball joints and bushes removed they were going to powder-coat... I lay them all side by side on the floor and a couple just didn't sit flat, on closer inspection two were twisted.

new bushes and ball joints are available, so find arms that are straight with decent bushes if possible, and yes, ball joint can be swapped across from one arm to another if you want to save a few $$'s and don't mind the sweat equity cost...boots for the ball joint can be found online in universal sizes... they work OK ... OE style ball joint boot replacements I haven't seen any in a while...

The ball joint has been re-manufactured these days as it also fits 124 Abarth CSA and 131 Abarth rally rear suspension units.. in those applications it's bolted in to the lower rear control arm.

20180716_112304.jpg

the arm itself is able to be fitted to either side (with the caveat re transmission recess for clearance see picture above) if the ball joint is "reversed" so if your stuck a left arm could be easily fitted to the right after a ball joint swap.
SteveC
 
fiatfactory said:
I did a batch of 6 arms a little while back, all looked OK/straight when I started, when all six had ball joints and bushes removed they were going to powder-coat...
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Silly question here... Can the arms be powder coated with the ball joints on?
 
Powder coating requires a fair amount of heat (180 - 200C). I'd be concerned about damage to rubber and lubricants. I painted mine with the ball joints on - no issues. I've heard that there are UV curing types that require lower temperatures but don't know much about them.
 
HeavyD said:
Silly question here... Can the arms be powder coated with the ball joints on?
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the ball joint has a nylon cup inside which the taper pins ball pivots on ... and I would guess that the temp the powder coat is baked at would deteriorate this to some degree, so my answer would be no.

SteveC
 
fiatfactory said:
the ball joint has a nylon cup inside which the taper pins ball pivots on ... and I would guess that the temp the powder coat is baked at would deteriorate this to some degree, so my answer would be no.

SteveC
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Thanks Steve, I knew it couldn't be that easy. I am doing a @rx1900 suspension refresh kit and have the arms off with the bushings removed and hoping to powder coat instead of paint. I have a small powder coat set up and prefer it to paint. To me the prep work is the same but the end result is 100 times better. Thanks for the reply.

DeLaun
 
HeavyD said:
Silly question here... Can the arms be powder coated with the ball joints on?
Click to expand...

As others have said...I do know a member here who had his FRONT control arms - with ball joints - powder coated. And yes...the process destroyed the ball joint portion from the heat.. I'm sure the rears would meet the same fate......
 
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