What kind of tools are required for upper ball joint removal?

[joshhemming]

I have the 1993 2wd. I may be able to borrow an air chisel to remove the rivets on the original upper. But if I can't acquire one, is there enough room in there to use a standard 4" angle grinder?

I've also heard of people drilling the rivets out. Again, it looks pretty tight in there. Do you have to drill from the top downwards with a right angle drill?

At least a couple of the upper control arm bushings are shot, too. The Haynes manual is useless with regards to the bushings (says they aren't replacable). Any advice on how to remove the old bushings and seat the new ones? Can it be done with the arm and alignment adjustment assembly installed on the van, or should I remove the assembly and lock it in a vice to work on the bushings? I've read all the warnings about replacing the alignment shims the way they were.

 

[BrooklynBay]

I removed the upper ball joint assembly, drilled out the rivets, then replaced the ball joint with the bushings on my 89. They didn't sell replacement bushings when I had to do this on my 88, so I bought the entire assemby at a dealer which was very expensive. Autozone sells the bushings, and the ball joints. The bushings have to be pressed in with a hydraulic press or a bushing press which is similar to ball joint press.

 

[JayT]

The rivets are tapered and can be driven out from the underside after grinding or chiseling off the underside rivet head(drive them upward and out). I did mine with the ball joint still on the truck.