removing the ball joints

[kell490]

I can't seem to get the ball joints loose on the upper and lower a-arms. I removed all the bolts put a jack under it and been hammering away with a 2lb hammer they just wont move. I even used a ball joint fork still wont move them. Looks like I screwed up the dust boot doing it but Ill replace them anyway. Any ideas? I sprayed some wd40 in the lower one but can't really get he upper one very well.

[cdowns]

FOR SAFETY always leave the nuts on the balljoint stud when trying to break them loose
theey need very strong blows from a heavy hammer(i use a 7lb mallet) to get the tool wedged between the spindle and control arm and to break them loose

[poorboy]

put the nut back on with a couple threads. Have the jack under the lower arm but not touching. The pressure from the spring will help seperate it. A couple wacks and it should come off.

[kell490]

I got the top one loose was able to work the fork in there and I removed the spring, so it pushed it apart, but the lower is being difficult. I can't get the fork in there I need a wider one try to find one at autozone tomorrow. The ball joints are not in great shape so ill be replacing those too 40 years old they are.

Edit

Looks like I had a tie rod fork tool I went back to autozone and they gave me the ball joint remover. It wasn't easy but came apart.

[short step]

try hitting the spindle where the shaft goes through,hit it hard,should come rite off,you can get the boots at napa help rack,i think they are the large tie rod boots
bob

[Ram-Man]

I would get a ball joint press. Basically a huge c-clamp to press them out. You can usually rent them from your parts store, they work alot better than a fork. If you are going to beat them with a pickle fork they come apart easier when you heat up the spindel with a torch first.

[kell490]

Okay just a follow up on what i ended up doing. I tried heating the spindle with a propain torch didn't even make a dent. I had to get a friend to come over with his oxy/act torch he heated it red hot i thought it was going to melt then he smacked down on the studs 10-15 times with a 5lb hammer it then broke loose. He works on big equipment and said those were the worse stuck ball joints he had ever seen. All the dust covers ended up being melted, so I ended up replacing all of them anyway while I was in there. I did get a ball joint press which worked fine for getting the ball joint out of the control arms but getting those spindles off was nothing like some said here a few raps on the side of the spindle. I'm not sure how you would use the press to remove the spindle it works fine to get them out of the control arms. Anyway thanks for the help