if you hit it on the stud you not doing any good to remove it. in fact your gonna mushroom the stud and never get it out. that link about the shock and fall i posted works the best. before i ever did it that way i beat and beat on a pickle fork and it never wanted to come loose. you hit the knuckle a few good wacks and it falls apart like butter

 

iof you have never done front suspension work, then please get soemone with you who knows what he's doing. If you don't you'll end up with a spring going all over your shop or worse and when lucky you might just destroy the threads on speindles trying to get the balljoints off