Rear Spherical Ball Joint repair - 63 SDV

[Tom Bahner]

Anyone out there ever replaced the rear ball joint on their Caddy?? With the gas tank vent tube so close my mechanic is a  little afraid to use a torch or grinder to cut the heads off the rivets. My mechanic had it on the lift and was going to remove the upper control yoke assembly to torch the rivets but the rear axle kept wanting to twist forward and down. He did use a jack stand under the drive line.

Anyone had any experience with this or have suggestions.

I've got confidence in him, this is the first thing he's had trouble with. He's worked on a lot of old school stuff so has a pretty good idea about fixing stuff on this old girl. He did a great job of repairing my drive shaft, repaired my choke problem so it runs on cold starts instead of having to start it 10 times before it warmed up, etc..

Open to suggestions.Thanks

Tom B

[Jason Edge]

As Russ indicated (and shop manual page 4-27 note 23.a.) jack stand needs to be under forward end of differential and slightly raised to relieve pressure.