Help-Upper Ball Joint removal - 64 Riviera

Need little help with getting the upper ball joints out of the A-arm. they seemed to be tack welded to the arm.

If I read the manual correctly these do not come out? Do I need to get a new A-Arm to put the new Ball Joints that I have?

I have ground down the welds without getting into the original A-Arm.

(Have a build thread going in the general build area)

No you can carefully grind the weld away and press out the new ball joint. Some people tack weld them in too, but its not needed.

I round down the welds and hit it with an impact hammer as the ball joint kit didn't have a collar small enough to fit. Looks like I might have to hit HF for a 20 ton press.

and to be sure.. it should pull out the top (from the pic).

Also, any source for a new steering Linage assembly (Intermediate rod). A PO appears to have beaten the hell out of the joint ends and bent them up. they were sloppy so I tried to get the castle nut off but it was a losing battle and decided to cut the ends off. Might not have been the smarts thing to do as I am having trouble finding one. Does the Riviera and skylark have interchangeable parts? or with something else?

not feeling the love with the Buick today.

I dont understand what you mean by 'pull out the top', I have a tabletop 6 ton press (from HF) and it was enough to do all the ball joints and links in the suspension. The ball joint does come out in an upward direction in your picture. You can remove the grease fitting if thats what you are refering to.

As for the centerlink, I dont know where to get one, I didnt have to replace mine, so I didnt shop for it

I meant that it is pushed out the top.. not down towards the lower ball joint. I found a replacement center link for $350 on Kanter. that's going to hurt.

didn't think it would be hard to find parts, going to have to think before I just chop something out.

Might have to get the 6 ton press so I can afford the new center link. :-)

I learned not to throw anything away until I had the new part on hand and installed. Lost count of how many times I was putting a new part in and needed a piece of hardware or something off the old part.

No you can carefully grind the weld away and press out the new ball joint. Some people tack weld them in too, but its not needed.

Yes sometimes it is necessary to tack weld the ball joints if they press in too easy....

otherwise they will come out later. We have to do this in my shop about every six months or so. On

some applications, Moog offers an oversize "problem -solver" ball joint for vehicles when the stock size ball joints don't fit tight. In those cases we fix the problem that way.

new HF press assembled in 10 minutes... all 4 ball joints pressed out in 5.

now to find a new center link and get everything cleaned up and painted.

thanks Alini, sometimes the right tool saves time. spent more time trying to find collars that would fit while using the ball joint press from AutoZone.