what is the trick to removing the lower ball joint from the knuckle? its a qa1 tubular arm only been in there for like 4 months. i never can get the ball joints to separate i don't know what i do wrong. what is the trick? i just seems like a pickle fork never works for me

 

I always took the nut off and hammered the side of the knuckle close to the ball joint and it would come off easily. You could also hit the top of the ball joint by setting a peice of wood on top of it and hitting it with a hammer.

 

I take the crown nut off then thread it back upsidedown till its flush with the stud and just smake it with a hand held sledge and it falls right out.

 

Like mentioned above, hit the sides of it with a hammer. It may take some convincing but it will eventually fall out. If that doesn't work you can do like uber said and use the nut and hit the top of the stud.

I would stay away from the forks that people use as that usually does bad things to the boot.

 

same as what uber said, hit it with a large hammer. make sure the nut is upside down and the threads are protected by the nut.

ive never had good success with pickle forks, always seem to rip the boot real bad. lol

 

is there any way to get the ball joint out of the arm without that press tool? i'm trying to avoid buying one considering i'm probably only gonna use it once and i can't even rent one around here

 

cut the a-arm apart to get at it??

possibly a large c-clamp and large socket.

 

or can i just hammer it out? there must be a shade-tree way of doing this

 

that thing is pretty solid in there. You could try heating up the a arm and then popping it with a hammer.. but i doubt you will see any movement. I think you would run into the problem of keeping the a-arm solid while you hit it with a hammer, the bushings would absorb most of the blow.

although, you are NEVER supposed to heat up suspension pieces.

 

Large c clamp and socket is the only way really besides the tool.