I am stuck and very frustrated! The lower ball joint on my 87 4Runner is stuck, not in the control arm but in the spindle. I got it loose from the control arm with the pickle fork and now it won't seperate from the spindle.

Any tips?

I have tried inserting the pickle fork in the little slot between em, using a bottle jack to seperate the a-arms, etc.

Has anyone else had this problem, can anyone give me advise?

thanks,
AK

 

Did you try pounding it in the slot with a hammer? Pounding a wedge into that slot is really your only option.

 

Yea i tried that, i am going to try it with the tire iron handle tomorrow, if not I'll have to pull the cv boot. Things suck man, i pulled them off of the spindles I got with this lift kit i got, took a good beating even then with nothing attached to em.

 

So it took me and my dad a sledge hammer and the pickle fork just to seperate the lower from the spindle on one side.

Still another side to go.

Putting the lower on I broke one of the mounting bolts in the spindle, good thing I got an extra set for my lift kit thats going on in a few weeks.

Also before greasing these things I may have tightend one of grease points too tight, thus stripping the hole a lil bit.

How much grease should u have in these things, should the rubber be filled all the way up?

What a PITA, I hate IFS on Rustbucketsss....