Well, if I tell you seperating the lower ball joint from the lower control arm can be areal PITA, I won't be telling you anything new. But, you know what, it really is. Nevertheless, I managed to do it - finally. (Now on to getting the ball joint out of the steering knuckle! )

Anyway, I wanted to share how I finally managed to get them seperated. Actually, I got the idea from here: Lower Ball joint - A real pain Please read

I believe it is post # 9 on that thread where William Rogers talks about using a pickle fork to get the job done. The problem with using a pickle fork on this job is that: 1) the tines can be a little too long and 2) the width of the fork isn't quite enough to really seperate these two. So, what Will brilliantly suggested (it's one of those, I can't believe I didn't think of that moments ) was inserting an open end wrench (about 1" wide) in between the ball joint and LCA and THEN pounding in the pickle fork.

Oh man, that was all it took. I had read about the two hammer method and had used a floor jack underneath the LCA while pounding down on the ball joint stud (if you try that screw on the old nut first). Those are both great ideas, but I just couldn't get them to work. Regarding the two hammer method - I just couldn't really get at the end of the LCA with both hammers (its stuck back in the knuckle there and is real hard to get at). With the floor jack under the LCA method - I was getting too much bounce when I smacked the ball joint stud, so the force wasn't really being focused like it needed to.

But then I read Will's idea and I realized that it was going to work. To be fair, the method that is going to work for you is probably dependant on what stage of disassembly you are at. To get wrench/pickle fork method to work for me, I completely removed the steering knuckle with LCA still attached. Then I placed the rotor face down (wedged between two section of 4"X4" wood) so and held the LCA up (perpendicular to the ground) - that way I could wedge the wrench and pickle fork DOWN in between the LCA and ball joint and smack on it with my 8lb sledge. I was actually able to just use one hand on the hammer and with about six whacks they popped apart.

Just thought I would share since it worked well for me. Now on to removing the ball joint from the knuckle .

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'95 E300D ("Tank") - 231,000 miles
'79 240D ("Biscuit") - 197,250 miles (Sold)
'83 240D ("Ding-Ding") - 217,000 miles (Death by deer)
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"Back off, man. I’m a scientist” ~ Peter Venkman