Quote:
Originally Posted by bwdz
Don't hit the arm or the ball joint, hit the knuckle with a big hammer and it will just pop out of there, it's a taper fit. It's the standard way of removing tie rods or ball joints on most cars. Pickle forks are rarely necessary and I don't recall using mine for the purpose of removing a tie rod or ball joint for over 20 years.
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This works on cars where the coil spring pushes against the a arm such as in american vehicles. This works by using the opposing forces of vehicle weight pushing up against the spindle and the coil spring pushing down against the a arm against each other. The vibration then separates the taper ball joint that joins the two. Just be sure you only loosen the ball joint nut a few threads. I have done this many times in my lifetime. However this will not work on a McPherson strut suspension since there is no force on the lower control arm and hammering on the aluminum machined carrier is not advisable and can fracture and/or damage the machined taper.