Hi guys! I have a third-hand 1994 K5 with a ton of miles and a totally original suspension. One of the upper ball joints was utterly shot, and the control arm bushings all looked awful. And, the thing handled like a garbage barge. So, I naively figured I'd drop the control arms out of there and replace all the bits.

Holy hell. Who-knows-how-many hours with an air hammer and a drill later, I have 2 of the 6 upper ball joint rivets out, and none of the 8 big lowers. I started by knocking the heads off the rivets with a chisel. I can get the upper rivets out by center drilling them and punching them out with the air hammer, but drilling the little pilot holes in that hard steel without a drill press is agonizingly slow even with fancy cobalt bits. I've drilled a couple of the 1/2 inch or so lower rivets out to 3/8 inch and have been afraid to go bigger both because (1) I'm afraid my holes aren't centered enough to avoid putting elongated holes in the control arm if I try to drill the things out completely and (2) any bigger and I won't be able to get a good bite with the air hammer punch. But they aren't budging. And I haven't even gotten around to really thinking about the bushings. Not to mention, one of the lower arms is still stuck stubbornly on the torsion bar.

I know this is a big headache even for a shop, but surely they don't spend 20 hours on this job. What would a pro do about this? Am I missing a magic ingredient -- torch? better air hammer? (I have the Harbor Freight special, so maybe that's part of my problem.) It'd be worth putting some cash into better tools to make this hellish job a little easier. Suggestions?

 

4" angle grinder to take off the heads, then a punch bit in the air chisel has always worked good for me. You have to take the head off on the underside of the control arm though. Taking it off on the ball joint side and trying to drive it back through can be a pain because things didn't always line up well from the factory which lead to steps in the rivets. Since you are just trying to remove everything from the control arm, focus on just getting things free from there.

If it were a real K5, it would have a solid front axle under it!

 

Yep my dad had one of those. Those things are the true Blazer spirit! But technically these 92-94 models with the independent front end are still considered K5s aren't they - is there another forum area that's better for this thing?

Sounds like pretty much the approach I'm trying, but the punch bit isn't going anywhere. I've got the underside heads off and ground down flat. I'm thinking maybe this means my $15 air hammer doesn't have the cojones to make it happen...

 

I used to do it with a 4" angle grinder, then a punch & hammer on s-series trucks before I had an air compressor. My Ingersol Rand air chisel with a sharp bit doesn't have any trouble with rivet heads and even makes offset rivets a breeze so having the right tool definitely makes a difference.

I was just bustin' on ya. Truth be told, Chevrolet dropped the K5 moniker before they moved to IFS on the fullsize Blazer.

 

Thanks for the pointers! I was thinking a quality tool was probably a good investment, but didn't want to drop a chunk of change only to discover I was barking up the wrong tree.

I went after the upper rivets with a hand punch and 4 pound hammer for a good while without accomplishing much. I'm doing this all in very much a shade-tree environment, which doesn't help. But I guess maybe the moral here is that if in doubt, bigger hammer!

 

When using a hammer, it helps a TON to back up the control arm with jack stand or a block of wood down to the floor at a minimum so that there is something to hit into. If you aren't backing it up with something, a lot of force & effort is getting wasted as it gets absorbed by the control arm bushings.

Tools are one area I have tried not to skimp on. A few things I have been bitten bad by in the past and it has made a believer out of me when it comes to the old phrase, "You get what you pay for".

 

The control arms are out of the chassis, so at least I don't have that problem exactly. But backing can still be a problem. I'm working directly on the ground, supporting the ends with blocks of wood to try to keep some clearance on the far end of the rivets. But it's probably worth taking some time to make things as solid as possible. Sometimes I think the ground itself has too much give. I tried working on cinder blocks but of course just pulverized them. I can only hope one of these days I'll actually have a shop and a real workbench!

Boy that's the truth! Seems like I'm just throwing my money away every time I try to skimp on something too.

 

Sounds to me you are going about it all right.

Have you tried a bit of heat to help break it loose a bit?

My air hammer is a harbor freight model and I haven't had all that trouble on any of the ones I've done. Even running a mechanic business on the side I don't use an air hammer enough to buy a better one. Now my impacts, ratchets, drill, and die grinder are all name brand but they get used daily.

 

I find that if "beat" isn't working, try "heat and beat"

 

Yeah I did try heating things up without a whole lot of effect other than deforming the end of the rivet I'm hammering a little more, although I only have a little propane torch attachment. So a real torch might do more good. Maybe I need to heat more, I dunno. I get the impression these rivets are in there more solidly than average. I just tried some more heat on one of the upper rivets. After heating the area around the rivet and going after it some more, the hammer punch bit has left a divot a good quarter of an inch deep in the end of the rivet, but it still hasn't budged.

Neo: I hear ya, I figured this HF gun would be good enough for once in a while. And I wonder if a $100 one would help me much or not. I've gotta figure a $100 one might take care of some situations a $15 one wouldn't; I've seen some pros say only the $300 Chicago Pneumatic ones are worth bothering with. But the one I have is certainly giving this stuff a good beating, these rivets are just practically welded in there.