The photo speaks for itself. Unloading a spring has never been one of my favorite pastimes but it would be far less fun having to drill and chisel out the ball joints with the control arm on the car like the service manual describes. I was not expecting anything like this but avoided sending off my nice rust free upper control arms to one of those Corvette guys that supplies this service mostly to avoid having them lost in shipping. Looks like it was the right decision. New ball joint time. Looks like bad rubber I guess.
The rubber just ripped. Was not too much grease in there either. It happened not long after I finished the resto about two years ago. It had a small tear at first and I mickey mouse'd it with some rubber strips and glue but the grease won out with that and the rip got bigger..
Dave, Back when we were doing resto's, we wanted the correct riveted look, and could buy the rivets, but the tool to do them was crazy expensive, and like you, I did not want to send them away.. So, we got the die set out, and threaded the rivets.. they worked great, and gave us the correct look, without the hassle. I think I saw someone selling them threaded now.. maybe AMK or the parts place.. JW
Inline tube has them, they are on page 37 in the Buick catalog. http://www.inlinetube.com/PDF catalogs/Indv Vehicle Catalogs/Buick03.pdf
Jim, Good idea on threading the rivets but how did you hold them while tightening nut?. I had tried the threaded rivets sold by someone and for some reason I cannot remember I could not get them to work. Maybe I could not tighten them. I may have gotten them from Inline or AMK. I remember being really aggravated with them however. They may have gotten tossed in the trash. I have about 3000 miles on it since restoration was completed but split(small at first) showed up very early on.
When I restored my GS the same thing happened, both upper ball joint grease boots ripped. I assumed it happened because the suspension over extended because I put the chassis together without the engine in. I drove it this way for years and years. A few years ago I swapped front springs and new ball joints and no issues with the new grease boots. HTH
Dave, Spin them on with a 3/8 air gun.. like this one.. http://www.ingersollrandproducts.co...al-production-impactools/3-8-drive/max-series Trick is, they spin fast enough to tighten.. use a standard nut, and a lockwasher.. JW
I had to get the " kit" from the same vendor to get them to work . Then like JW the lock washer provided was enough to get locked down . Not a fun task for sure . Fyi the corvette rivets are a larger diameter. DL
I am thinking the same thing, over-extension , no engine/ trans weight. Hoping I don't have the same issue... Jim/Rott
