Having trouble detaching upper ball joint from control arm

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Apr 27, 2010
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Suburban Washington DC
2003 Sequoia. If you go to 2:30 in this video, the guy says to hammer on the knuckle part and not the control arm. Is that correct? I find that hard to believe as the control arm is what's holding the ball joint stud, and banging on the knuckle with a worn and loose ball joint wont transfer much force to the arm to shock it out.

 
Typically that works. Do you have it supported by the lower arm by chance? You may need to let the suspension droop to help you. Or get a fork to separate it. Nothing necessarily wrong with hitting the arm, especially if you’re replacing it. Just not usually necessary.
 
I concur. It'd be better to use a picklefork or the special ball joint separator tool. This guy got lucky
 
Got a heavier duty puller attached. Got it cranked down fairly tight. Gave the arm a wacks of the sledge hammer. Nothing yet. Feels pretty sketchy.

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Keep hammering on the knuckle....not the arm. And keep as much pressure as you can on the puller.

When I worked at a shop professionally we always used a hand sledge on the knuckle, used a big puller with an air impact on it. 1 or 2 precise blows and anything will come apart, don't be timid with it. More smaller impacts with a hammer only distorts stuff.
 
with those kind of tools it keep turning till it separates or they bend or break. i have done some that when they pop it sounded like a gun went off
 
That's some bad a$$ mechanical advantage right brother. The threads on the screw look a little dry. A little oil or grease always helps the cause.
 
A few more turns of the screw and blows of the hammer finally got it apart.
Yeah that's how it goes.

People break these pullers all the time by just torquing the screw, but you need to hammer as well to vibrate stuff apart.

So come up on the screw, hammer, then try the screw again-- you'll find you get to turn it a very small amount. Repeat over and over.

But for junk ball joints, nothing beats a pickle fork. I've even surprised myself by not wrecking boots, theoretically allowing reuse.
 
I've never had to use a pickle fork either, however, it may have come in handy replacing the ball joints and control arms on my Subaru. Those were the most stubborn arms/joints, I've ever replaced, and thankfully, non of the fasteners broke. Lots of heat, hammering and lube works everytime.
 
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Years ago when I was struggling getting something apart my boss would say "a man put that thing together and a man can get it apart".... Man used in a human sense of the word.

I don't own a pickle fork, but we used to use one occasionally on the typical 4x4 GM replace the entire front end every other year jobs.... that was back in the 90s.
 
Now I'm getting to the actual ball joint. I rented a BJ tool kit from Advance but when I went to use it, there wasn't enough room. The screw is too long and touches the inside of the fender such that the other end wont go around the ball joint. Decided to use the same puller I just used to get it done. The rental wasn't a total waste as I did have to use 2 pieces from it to make it work. I also cut the ball joint stud off first. Pics for anyone planning on doing it as it's similar on many Toyota trucks. Removal:

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Install

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