I canNOT, for the life of me, get this spindle away from the ball joint on the UCA. It's full of rust, like usual, but it's only a 65k mile car. Any times? I've tried hammering and prying. The only thing I haven't tried is the pickle fork thing. My Konis and BMR springs are begging to be put on but I'm stuck Help please!

 

I would pickle fork it and then replace the boot - or go all out and replace the ball joints.

 

you can use the pickle fork and just be careful not to damage the boot, it can be done. (Use the fork like a pry bar.) Get a three or four foot long steel pipe to lever the pickle fork too.

 

If you mess up the boot, get one from Energy Suspension.

 

I just did springs, ball joints, etc. a couple weeks ago. Just use a pickle fork and a big heavy hammer. Then just replace the upper ball joint they re extremely easy to replace. Just drill out the rivets and the new ones come with the bolts you need.

 

I use a small pitman arm puller that I made some minor modifications to, works great!

 

First time I tried removing a ball joint on an older car, I had the arms unloaded with the car on jackstands, and beat the hell out of it for like 15-30 mins. Then I jacked up the control arms to load them, and lightly pushed up on the upper arm, and it came apart in 2 whacks. One day I'll sit down and try to figure out the physics of that, but never had a problem since with my cars.