The Great Ball Joint Debate

[Counterman]

It’s safe to say that most of the vehicles on the road today have a MacPherson Strut type of suspension in the front. Most of these are of the design with one lower control arm on each side (as opposed to a multi-link suspension). Taking it one final step, most of these have the ball joints riveted to the control arm.

As luck would have it, the first suspension component that usually wears out on one of these vehicles is… you guessed it, the ball joint! So, when it comes time to replace them, you have a choice. These ball joints are available in two ways, as just the joint itself, or as the ball joint and control arm as a complete assembly.

So then comes the million-dollar question. Do you replace just the joint or the entire control arm? Your customer will likely ask your opinion.

Often, the decision comes down to who’s doing the work or who’s paying the bill, and sometimes a combination of both. There are pros and cons to each. Replacing just the joint by itself is the most economical from the standpoint of parts, but how hard is it to deal with the rivets that hold them in place? Is there extra labor? Replacing the entire control arm assembly is more expensive, but there are only traditional fasteners to deal with. Both jobs require an alignment afterward, so that’s a wash.

A new control arm includes new bushings, an additional benefit, but that’s when the argument can begin. If the control arm bushings are ok, why take the extra time to replace the entire arm, look up additional torque specs and potentially replace extra fasteners? After all, replacement ball joints come with bolts for reinstallation, so it may seem like it’s easier to replace just the joint, and you can replace the ball joint without removing the control arm, right? Well, you can…but there’s more to that story.

What better way to decide than with a good, old-fashioned case study. My 2014 Chevrolet Equinox had recently started clunking in the front, and upon inspection I found both front ball joints were bad. This was the perfect time to compare jobs, so I ordered a new control arm for one side and just a new ball joint for the other. Let me say that I’m no stranger to riveted ball joints, and I was certain I already knew what would be easier on this particular job, but I’m a glutton for punishment so why not find out for sure?

For many years, I worked at a Volkswagen specialty shop, back when the original Rabbit and other Mk1 models were still a common sight on the roads. These cars had riveted ball joints, and the nature of the aftermarket at the time was still to replace only the bad components. This was well before things like complete CV axles or control arm assemblies were readily available; replacing individual CV boots or ball joints was commonplace.

It didn’t take long to master the process of replacing a ball joint on one of these cars. You have two choices for this job, either drilling out the rivets or shearing them off. I had an air hammer bit designed specifically for shearing off the rivets (you can still buy these if you want one). I’d don my safety glasses and hearing protection, warn the shop it was about to get loud and then it took only a few seconds per rivet to shear the lower head of each of them off. Then, I’d switch to a punch bit and drive out the remainder of the rivets.

Unbolt the joint from the knuckle, slide the old one out and the new one in, reinstall the bolts and you were done. Sounds easy, right? It was, but the rivets were comparatively small. So were the control arms and control arm bushings. Everything was small and lightweight and easier to move around.

Nothing on new cars is small anymore. The control arms and bushings are larger, heavier and harder to work with, and the rivets that hold the ball joint in place are much larger in size. You can’t shear them off as easily. When you’re going to remove them, the best method is to use a cut-off wheel and cut into the head of the rivet in a cross pattern. This divides the head into four sections that you can then more easily shear off.

However, you should always take the word “easily” with a grain of salt. This can still be a difficult process, and after shearing off the rivet heads, rust often makes it difficult to drive them out. In addition to the noise and the negative effect of the vibration on your hands and wrists, you’re also wearing down both a cut-off wheel and air hammer bits, none of which are inexpensive to replace, so there’s an additional tool expense with this method when you really nit-pick the details.

So how did the Equinox compare? It was obvious what I was going to do on the control arm side, but on the other side, the ball joint had large, stout rivets, as expected. The manufacturer service information tells you to drill them out when removing the old ball joints, but it also tells you to remove the entire control arm and secure it in a vise before drilling out them out.

Remove the control arm? What does the manufacturer know? I never used to remove the control arm. Why should I take that extra time? My gut still told me to cut and shear the rivets, but these had a small divot in the center of each, which was even better since it was the perfect centering point for a drill bit. So, my decision was to drill out the old rivets with the control arm on the car.

Luckily, I had a brand-new set of stepped drill bits, which have been the best drill bits I ever owned. It was off to the races. I sized a bit up based on the new bolts, but I was careful not to go too large in case I ended up off center. I didn’t want to remove any material from the control arm. The drill bits cut well, but these rivets were no wimpy metal. I stopped a couple times to let the bit cool and let my arms recover, and overall, it took well over five minutes to get through just one rivet.

After finally drilling them all out (a decision I was regretting), I still had to shear off remaining parts of the rivet heads on bottom, and drive the rivet through, both of which I was able to do by hand with a hammer and chisel. Comparatively, drilling the rivets was quieter, but ultimately not much easier on the hands or arms, as it took longer and there was still wear and tear on expensive tools.

After getting the rivets out, I still had to remove the nut from the top of the ball joint, separate it from the knuckle with a pickle fork, then wrestle the ball joint out. Wrestling the new ball joint in place was more difficult than I expected due to the tension on the control arm bushings, and I pinched my fingers in the process, with nothing nice to say about my decision at this point. Once it was in, I installed the new castle nut and cotter pin, installed the three bolts to hold the ball joint to the control arm and was done with the job.

All in all, between getting the tools together and fighting with the various aspects of this method, it took me about an hour and a half to install the ball joint, and I had a mess of shavings and sheared rivets to clean up. Published book time for the job is 1.4 hours, so I wasn’t too far off, but I can think of many things I would rather have been doing.

So, now onto replacing the control arm on the other side. With just a few sockets, ratchet and wrenches, I removed the rear control arm bolts, front control arm bolt and ball joint nut. Then, I separated the ball joint from the knuckle with a pickle fork, pulled the control arm out, slid the new one in place, bolted it back up, installed the wheels and lowered the vehicle onto the suspension so I could tighten the bushings with the suspension at ride height.

All in all, I had 20 minutes in replacing the control arm, and maybe not even that long. And there was no drama, no pinched fingers, and I didn’t add any wear to any tools, or to my hands and wrists.

I saved money on the ball joint only because I wasn’t paying anyone labor to do the job, but, in retrospect, if I were to do it again, I would absolutely remove the entire arm before drilling out the rivets. I still wouldn’t want to drill them out. It was far from easy, and the one thing none of us ever has enough of is time, and you can’t get that back. Does replacing just the ball joint really make sense? I know my answer. I’ll let you decide.

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