Took the front end off the '68 Rivy yesterday. Really tough pressing the upper ball joint out with a 20T press so we cleaned away 35 years of grease only to find the ball joint spot welded to the upper a-arm. Whoa. Do you suppose this was a factory deal? One of those dealer things, "we can't just replace the ball joint, the whole a-arm needs to be replaced"? They were still tight after we ground off the welds and pressed out hard so could see no reason to have them welded.
Yeah...If you read the service manual it says the upper cant be replaced. You need to replace the entire control arm. Dumb design. Ive never done upper yet on either of mine, but I do have replacement TRW's sitting on the shelf. The new ones are threaded with a big flat nut. I assume the flat nut takes the place of the weld?. If you can, post a pic of the A frame with the replacement joint. I'd like to see exactly how the new one fits.
Those upper ball joints wear like iron.......I drove my old '66 Riv for over 200,000 miles on the originals. I have those upper control arms stored in my garage and the ball joints are still in good shape. I'd like to see quality like that on today's cars! The bushings had to be replaced twice though. If you can twist the stud with your fingers, then the ball joint is no good.....same goes for tie rod ends. If yours were OK what's the point in replacing them? The replacements are prolly not as good as the originals were. Same goes for idler arms......the original threaded design was supposed to have a small bit of play......many of those were needlessly replaced with aftermarket parts that were tighter but designed to wear out. I still have the original in my '67 and it's staying there. :bglasses:
Too late to reconsider. Everything is apart and new Moog/TRW stuff is in the works. Hey, I'll be long gone before the new stuff wears out. And as ratty as the undercarriage and front end were, I wanted to sand blast, paint, and replace the entire suspension. The paint still won't be show quality but the running gear will be top-knotch. I should hear from Springs 'n Things tomorrow on availability of the upper ball joints. She said they don't have them but that she'd find them. FYI their prices are slightly better than Rock Auto and WAY cheaper than any other source I've found.
What's springs'n things? Is it a web site or local? I tried a search but came up with nothing...Steve
Steady yourself for the price. Each upper balljoint is about $75! They were indeed welded in at the factory and yes the shop manual says they are not a servicable item and the entire arm must be replaced. I assume they did that to make sure they didn't pop out at any time in the future. I am only aware of their availability at CARS, KANTER and Buick World. If you ask for an upper 69 Riv ball joint at ANY parts store they hand you an A-body ball joint. Somewhere a part number got put in wrong and now every book says the same thing. But they are wrong. So, the new ones are held in with an enormous nut that must then be welded in place. You'll see what I mean when you get them.
Here's the ESPO (Springs 'n Things) webpage. http://www.espo.com/ And the upper ball joints are $95 each. Man, I sure wish we'd have checked the old ones real close before pulling them. Oh well, live and learn, sometimes.
Ball joints Hi Gary If you havent found your Ball joints yet , send me PM I have a set of Moog joints. Upper . I aslo have a pair of Lower for the same application. These are new Moog with the large Nut. I used them on my 66 CAt. tack Welded the nut. Jim Schilf palbuick@aol.com
