Lower Ball Joint Removal, The right way?

What is the right way to remove the knuckle when the lower ball joint nut just spins in the ball-joint and won't come off. The BFH did not work because the lower was truely frozen, and the top was even peened over from grenading axles shafts.

I ended up getting it off by using the air chisel on the bottom of the joint and extracting the ball from the joint. I then could used the press, and hammer menthod to remove the rest of the joint.

What do the professionals do?

In a word--HEAT. The "blue wrench" (aka an oxyacetylene torch) will loosen just about anything--or melt it doing so.

They use a balljoint press. It looks like a big C-clamp with a hollow end on it to allow the balljoint stud to fit through. It also installs them quite nicely also.

The "right" way is with a tool like this...

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=4065

I got one of these when they were on sale for $30.

I have a ball-joint press! You have to remove the knuckle before you can use it. The problem I had was the lower ball-joint nut was just spinning. I had to separate the joint to get the knuckle off.

I get the problem, if the joint is REALLY bad, the ball joint shaft will spin in the ball joint when turning the nut (i'm assuming you didn't forget the cotter pin). best way I know to solve the prob is to cut the nut off, cut the shaft, or use some pressure on a lever bar in the joint to jam the joint tight enough so that the pressure keeps it from spinning. An impact style hit works better than smooth pressure if you use this method.

Bones