For safety, always leave the nut on the balljoint. Loosen it about 5 turns then use either a seperator or using a small sledge hit the spindle (where the balljoint stem comes through) and it will pop it apart.
The seperators or pickle forks as we call them will distroy the ball joint boot so plan on replacing the ball joints if you havent already. The other way will distort the metal on the spindle somewhat but will not do any structural damage. Usually one or two good hits will pop it.
You should always be careful when doing this but if you leave the nuts on you'll be fine.
If you are going for a complete tear down I would go in this order:
-seperate the tie rod from the spindle
-remove the caliper if equipt
-LOOSEN both upper and lower ball joint nuts.
-serperate the upper and lower ball joints, leaving the nuts on.
-While truck is on jackstands, place a floor jack NOT a bottle jack under the outer most part of the control arm.
-Jack the control arm up until you see the upper arm start to move.
-remove the upper ball joint nut and allow spindle to fall back.
-remove the lower ball joint nut and remove spindle.
Your now ready to unbolt the lower shock bolt.
-remove the bolt and SLOWLY lower your jack (be sure not to stand directly infront of the suspension) until the spring has no tension. Listen for it to slide a bit before grabbing onto it.
Be very carfull on the last step... Use commen sense and you'll be fine
