I'm in the middle of replacing the upper and lower ball joints on the passenger side... I unbolted the 4 bolts holding the lower bj to the knuckle assembly, and I used my 2-arm puller and broke the compression fitting at the A-arm, but the two flat surfaces (bj and knuckle) won't separate..... I've tried the BFH and chisel method and it won't break it free. I also tried to thread the nut back on a little and put my bottle jack in between the two a-arms..... it didn't budge.

Ideas? I don't have a torch. Am I missing something?

 

bolt it back up then leave the nut on with a few threadsget the ball joint seperator fork and a 8 or ten pound hammer and beat the h-e double hockey sticks out of it and it will seperate.

 

any luck man?

 

Yeah, finally got the lower. I tried the B'erFH trick and it worked.... ended up bending and then snapping one chisel, but it separated.

I'll have to tackle the upper one on Thursday when I have time off again.

 

Cool, I'm getting ready to do mine too...I'm putting in new upper arms, and my bottom ball joints and tie rods are ready to go I think. Gonna order them and let the swear words and sparks fly...

 

All you have to do is slam the knuckle 8-10 times as hard as you can with a BFH and it will fall right out!
Derek

 

Get a two-arm puller!!!! And get ready to be amazed at how much tension those compression fittings hold!

I suggest ripping the whole knuckle apart.... the FSM says to and I tried to get at the uppers without doing so, and couldn't get a good angle. So set aside the time and tear into it!

 

I tried that, switching between sides, and all it did was chew up the metal on the BJ. It took a chisel and a lot of hammer.