How did you seperate the ball joint from the hub? I dont want to use a pickle fork and tear up the joint.

 

couple of ways.....

on my 3rd gen, there's just enough room to stick a small metal plate between the ball joint threads and the axle.. then I just unscrew the nut off the ball joint and it will eventually pop the joint out.

the other way is to heat the spindle with a torch, and whack it with a hammer. it will cause the bore to be elongated for a split second... after a few hits, it will eventually pop the ball joint out.

 

Winnar!

That changes my plan of attack. I'm putting in ES bushings this weekend. I was going to try and get a head start by putting the car on stands and getting the axles out of the hubs on Friday night.

No more. I will try this way first.

 

Good way to avoid damaging the boot. Do this before the control arm is removed. Using a long prybar, apply upward/downward pressure on the control arm(forgot which way the nut points). The point is to apply constant pressure on the arm. Then take a largish ballpeen hammer and whack the side of spindle. The point is not to hammer out the joint but to create alot of vibrations. This vibrations will "loosen" up the joint just enough to remove it out of the arm seat. Works well.

 

I used that stupid pickle fork thing once when I replaced a control arm on my old car once. It sure did tear up the boot on the ball joint. After a month or so, I had to replace the ball joint. Why did they even make that tool?

 

Just hammer the side of the spindle and it will pop out.