Control arm replacement.

Hello all,
I'm having a difficult time replacing the front drivers side control arm. I have removed the bushing, the 22mm nut (that was a lot of fun..) and the nut on the steering knuckle.

All the nuts are off but the control arm is stuck by the ball joint on the hub. I've tried hammering a pickle fork in it, hitting it repeatedly with various size hammers, heating it up with a torch, cooling it down with ice, hitting the actual metal that surrounds where the ball joint stud goes it, and still no luck.

I guess at last resort I can take the assembly to a shop and have it pressed out. Must I remove the entire coil-over to get the hub out? It appears so.

Thanks for any suggestions...

Go to Auto Zone and rent their ball joint/pitman arm puller kit. It comes with 4 or 5 different separators and one of them will fit your ball joint. You put the tool over the ball joint and tighten it down with a wrench. This will apply slow even pressure and the joint will separate. You can have this done in 5 minutes.

Then throw away your pickle fork. If you are going to do this more than once, or need to separate a ball joint and steering knuckle but aren't replacing the ball joint, buy the correct size tool outright. It lets you get everything apart without destroying the boot on the ball joint.

+1 - the right tool every time - even if you rent it to start with. Once the tool is in place and tensioned up one good blow on the housing should pop the joint.

You need more hammer.

m

canned ice may also be useful