Separating the idler arm and the centerlink

[dj's70c-10]

I am converting the drum brake's up on my 70 C-10 to disk brakes with the parts off a 72. It all went well up to the point of seperating the idler arm and the center link. Is there a technique that works that will not do collateral damage to the steering gear? I am using a pickle fork to seperate the two and have driven the fork with a sledge hammer about as hard as think I can before I might damage the steering gear. Any suggestions would be appreciated.