Topic: Ball Joint rivet installation

[BHStang]

Does anyone have some pictures on what tooling setup they are using to successfully install the control arm rivets?  I would like to be able to do this myself instead of sending out every set of arms.  The AMK rivets crush fairly easy but keeping them from bending sideways seems to be a real challenge.  Including 1 picture of what I have been using on my press thus far.

 

[Big Al]

Question - do you heat the rivet any before?
Al

[Bob Gaines]

Question - do you heat the rivet any before?
Al

You shouldn't have to.

[BHStang]

They crush easy as its a soft metal.  The problem with heating is you are so close to the rubber dust boot, and cork gasket for that matter that if you got it hot enough to make a difference it would probably become an issue.  Or at least I would think.

[Bob Gaines]

They crush easy as its a soft metal.  The problem with heating is you are so close to the rubber dust boot, and cork gasket for that matter that if you got it hot enough to make a difference it would probably become an issue.  Or at least I would think.

You are correct ,heat will damage the rubber boots. Extreme heat red hot rivets like used to couple steel girders on skyscrapers is not necessary for this situation.   

[Bossbill]

I think you need to build a very sturdy jig that doesn't allow the arms to move while you press in the rivets. Holding these by hand is not going to work.

You should probably make the jig adjustable (bolts) so you can adjust the amount of tilt in both directions (x,y) until you get it just right. You should also capture the top of the arms so NOTHING moves.

[TLea]

Only way to do it properly is to have a high quality press and the jigs and tooling need to be professionally made. I've seen a lot of cut corner set ups and you're just wasting your time. I had my tooling made probably 15 years ago and it cost around 2K then. Probably 200 control arms later its paid off many times.
There also is a learning curve even when you have correct tooling. Good to practice on metal scraps first.