So I'm removing my front drivers side hub on my '95 SE Auto so my brother in law can remove and replace the wheel bearing for me. I can't get the ball joint to pop loose for the life of me. I was able to do the tie rod without an issue. The cotter pin is removed and the nut is backed off more than enough. I had to unbolt the steering knuckle and slide out the axle to unscrew the nut on the ball joint and then reassemble so it wouldnt flop around while trying to pop it. I'm trying my best to stabilize the hub and hit down on the control arm(?) to get it to pop but its not giving. Any thoughts on how to get it to give???

I eventually hit one of my fingers with a small sledge hammer trying to do it yesterday and mangled it horribly. Closest I've ever come to passing out from an injury in my life. Everything was going white on me! I told my wife "i'm gonna pass out, don't panic if i do" but I ended up laying down and breathing into a bag and slowly came back. My finger is a mess.

The things I do for my max!

 

ball joint fork? that would help

 

I just replaced the front wheel bearing on my 96 max a couple of weeks ago and had to seperate the knuckle from the ball joint.

You can use a ball joint fork but this may destroy the boot, which is not really a problem since you can get another one cheap.

The way I did it was to go to Autozone and borrow (free) the Pitman Arm puller. It fits perfectly on the 96 max. I tried the tierod end puller but this was too small. It should pop right out with this tool with little effort.

Make sure you leave the balljoint nut on when using the pitman arm puller so as not to mess up the threads and keep everything together when the tool literally pops the two pieces apart.

 

ouch. you can also use some sort of pole for leverage and pry it off. sorry about your finger.