anybody here here ever done it without using special tool? hard? mines smashed up and want to fix it before replacing the tires.

 

There's alot on here about this...

Mine pretty much fell out. However, a tie rod end puller is fairly cheap and works just fine poppin ball joints out.

 

I used a pickle fork on mine. Took quite a bit of hammering but it did come out.

 

Just did my lowers, pickle fork and a hammer worked fine and mine popped out easy. I used the pickle fork for the outer tie rods too. New ones just slide in and then you tighten the nuts. Upper ball joints are a little harder to do.

 

Uppers or lowers? You can do the uppers without a puller. Jack up the side of the truck your working on, and put a jackstand there. Then put a jack under the A-arm, remove the shock, the 4 nuts on top, and lower the jack.....then get a BFH, and pound on the A-arm, lower the jack down some more...repeat. It took me'bout 35 min to change 1 upper.
If your doing lowers....sorry I can't help you there.

 

brian2sun, you snuck your answer in there as I was re-reading mine.....LOL.

 

That's cuz I'm sneaky...haha.