[COBALT]

I finally got the upper ball joints loose, but it took me all day yesterday to get them both out. I beat on the spindle with a drift until my arm was going to fall off. No damage to the spindle, but the joint wouldn't move. I tried using a puller, and even tried the bolt trick, but neither of those did any good.

I finally had to heat up the spindle and ball joint stud with a propane torch, and then blasted the pickle fork with all the might I could muster. A couple times of that and it finally came loose. These have never been changed. They're still riveted to the upper control arm. So much dirt. and filth! To give you an idea the nuts for the U-bolts on the lower control arms weren't even VISIBLE. They were burried under about 2 inches of old dirt, grease, and filth. I had to chizel it out with a screw-driver and wire brush the nuts to get a grip on them.

Now I got everything apart except for the connecting rod that runs between the pitman arm and the idler arm. It's snug on the pitman, and I can't seem to get it to come loose. Anyone know of a puller I could get to pop that thing loose? All of my pullers' jaws are too big and wont' fit. I gotta reuse that rod, so I don't want to beat it up.