Does anyone here have one (or know where I can rent one) of the Company23 ball joint removal tools I could borrow/rent? I've been trying to remove my ball joints from the knuckle with no luck so far.
My tool: a BFH. What I do, since your replacing the ball joint anyway - remove the retaining clip and nut, put a jack under the ball joint and jack it up putting pressure on the ball joint. Then with your BFH smack the knuckle until the ball joint pops out. Check Eric the car guy on youtube.
I tried this tactic already without out any luck . I tried torching it and did what I could with my pry bars and hammer but no luck. Those things are REALLY stuck.
You sound like you're describing a tie rod end. Or maybe getting the ball joint out of the control arm, but getting it out of the knuckle is the challenging part. I laughed the first time I saw a tool like this (sniper was assembling an early batch of them that were sold through TiC). I've done a dozen or so with just a fat chisel to spread the knuckle, and they fall out. But our '03 Outback must have been stored in the ocean at some point, they were so rusty. I ended up putting the knuckle in a vice, and bolting the ball joint to a slide hammer and beating it straight out. I've through about buying that tool since then, but now I've replaced both of them in her car....I may not need it again.
I cracked the tabs on the knuckle on 2 different cars trying the chisel method...if the tool works (have yet to try it), it is worth its weight in gold.
