OK, I managed to get the coil spring out without the engine in, no problems with the lower balljoint. Got the nut off the upper ball joint but I hammer and hammer on my balljoint fork and it bottoms out. I thought it might be a bit big so I went after it with the tie rod seperator fork, it bottoms out. I even hit the fork with a sledge and still no go.

Any tricks? I am afraid I might damage the spindle if I hit it.

Shannon

hmmmm.... you really need the springs help here. The best way to do this is to back the nuts off a couple turns on both the upper and lower balljoints, then rap on the side of the spindle to pop both joints. Then take the spring off.

They make a ball joint separator that looks kinda like a c clamp? That might do it.

Try using two forks, one on each side of the joint. Hammer them towards each other (it helps to have two people hammer at the same time), the joint should pop before they bottom out.

hmmmm.... you really need the springs help here. The best way to do this is to back the nuts off a couple turns on both the upper and lower balljoints, then rap on the side of the spindle to pop both joints. Then take the spring off.

They make a ball joint separator that looks kinda like a c clamp? That might do it.

I would do exactly what Jim suggested about connecting the springs back. You WILL need the spring's force to help you. If you've already taken out the lower BJ, just "stick" it back in after you jack the LCA up close enough to engage the nut several turns with the spindle. As mentioned, back the nut off the top (probably already done this). Now, beat the $hit out of it with a LARGE hammer. Strike it on the top of the spindle. You will NOT hurt the spindle.

I had to do exactly that ^ only a month ago. I was also afraid I'd hurt/crack the spindle, but it ain't gonna happen. And fwiw, I used an 8# sledgehammer...choked back a short distance from the head...and I wailed on it HARD about 10-12 times before it finally popped loose. There is no way a regular hammer and pickle fork was going to work on mine either. This became quite evident as I was smacking it as hard as I could with the sledge :)

i got one of those nifty tools from marcus at scandc.com. worked like a charm and worth every penny!
http://www.scandc.com/tools.htm

I think dave pozzi's site shows how to make one of those.