Stuck lower ball joint removal

So I'm working on replacing my lower ball joints. I have the 4 bolts that hold it out as well as the 24mm with the cotter pin out.

Now I'm having trouble getting the lower ball joint to pop out of the lower control arm. I have tried pounding and pounding, also thought I could do it with a pickle fork, but mine wasn't wide enough. Tried some heat with a propane torch for shits and giggles with some more pounding but no luck. I have also tried putting a jack under the stud and applying up ward pressure while pounding but that didn't work and I was at the point where it was raising the truck off the jack stands so I stopped.

I have one of these on hand because I thought I might need it for the uppers: http://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tool...t-u-joint-press-set/557231_0_0/?checkfit=true
I wasn't how ever able to rig any thing up with it.

So any body got any tips for getting a stuck lower ball joint out. I was thinking of trying a bigger pickle fork or maybe some sort of 2-3 arm puller like this:

http://www.autozone.com/test-scan-a...ller/oem-jaw-puller/246387_0_0/?checkfit=true

I have a autozone near by to rent from or a harbor freight, I was also wondering if pounding up on the stud is help full, I have mainly been pounding on the sides of the lower control arm as I would like to keep the studs threads intact in case I need to drive to a shop or something, I suppose I could put the castle nut on and pound on that?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

you want these

 

Cool, Thanks, I'm off to autozone to look for one.

 

dead blow hammer works well too. just hit the lower control arm with it and it will help to free it up. I use this method for outer tie rods as well.

 

Pitman puller. Works everytime.

 

Tell me how hard/long it took you and what tools you needed to do the upper ball joint please? Mine needs to be replaced badly (wont even hold a cotter pin) and Im curious if I can do it with the tools I have.

 

I just used the pitman arm puller on it poped right out! Thank you sir!

As far as the uppers go I will be doing them later and I can let you know how it goes.

I'm using this as my guide

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-replace-upper-ball-joint.434497/#post-12553376

 

For uppers I used one of the autozone rental presses. Took a couple hours at least. Not fun. I think I even broke one of the press sleeves in the process. Good luck with those suckers

 

when you go to do the uppers, bolt the bottom back together and out a bottle Jack on your away bar mount that is on the lower control arm. Jack it up into the bottom of the upper control arm. Put some good pressure there and smack that spindle with a heavy hammer. Good solid smack on the side of the spindle. And it'll come right apart. About 5 minutes a side. Takes longer to get the cotter key out.

 

This and use an impact. Just buy one, very usefull for all kinds of stuff.

 

Hey steaktacos.....any problems getting the ball joint out of the control arm or did you replace the LCA entirely....i've been putting off installing ball joints on mine.....thanks !

 

For the lowers I just used a basic pitman arm puller like the one picture in the previous post, worked like a charm. The uppers were a process thought.
First tried separating the knuckle from the UCA with a pickle fork, and wrecked the bushing and stud and did not mange to separate the ball joint.

What I ended up doing was getting this puller from auto zone:
http://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tool...-pitman-arm-puller/695090/?_requestid=6654355

I then had to use it to separate the UCA from the knuckle, but it wasn't wide enough so I had to get longer bolts to go though it from the hardware store 4'' from 3.5" if I remember correctly. I then set it up with the jaws on either side of the UCA pushing down on the stud. That managed to separate the UCA from the knuckle. (I tried a 3 jaw puller before and wasn't able to get a grip on the UCA with it)

Once the UCA was separated from the knuckle, I then removed the snap ring from the bottom of the ball joint and prepared to press the ball joint from the knuckle, I put the original bolts back in since the puller was now too wide, and hooked each jaw on the side of the knuckle and pressed down on the stud again.

To reinstall the ball joint I used a flat bar like this guy did, couldn't fit any sockets in the pitman arm puller so had to use a flat bar:
http://www.bajataco.com/tech/control_arms_04.html

All and all it would have been much easier to uses a proper ball joint press with adapters. I just did it using what I could piece together from autozone, without buying extra tools.

This is a handy video for the uppers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7GRR1PhwV4