When I still worked as a Mechanic when you were pulling a Gear with a Puller it was common to rotate the Screwed Shaft and get it under a goodly amount of tension and rap on the Hex end of the Pressure Screw with a Hammer and sometimes the Gear or so on pops right off.

I have also heated the same and had them pop of from the heat or stopped the heat and walked away only to hear a pop and found the Gear came off after it cooled down some.

I have also see people get the Gear under Tension and hit the face of the Gear with a Brass Punch and Hammer combination (stay away from the teeth when you do this).

So giving items a shock most times works; but not all of the time.

I did not want to grind down my HF Chicago Tie Rod Tool either. I spent at least 3 hours scrounging around My House for material and bought a bolt and made a tool to press off the Upper Control Arm that would not damage the Boot.
I had to drag out My Welder. It turned out to be a lot of Work.

If I had it to do again I would have ground the Fork wider on My Chicago Tie Rod Tool and gone out and bought another when it is on Sale.

Grinding the Fork Wider would have allowed me to finish the job sooner.

There are other Tie Rod Searators and some of our Members have used them that work the same as the HF Chicago one. If they are made with that 1-1/16 opening at the Fored part it might be usee with out modification if the edges can slip under the Boot.

Unforunately sellers do not often provide dimensions.
Concerning the OTC Pitman Arm Puller in this thread. OTC did not give good dimensions and the Sellers Copied what OTC said.
I contacted OTC and the answered back but were not much interested in actually measuering one to answer my question; even though I told them they might sell more Tools if people knew what their Tool would fit.

The upper ball joint was easy - I left the nut on the tip, and gave it a couple of big slams with a hammer, and it released. Worked on both sides. Does it damage the joint? I dunno.... I was putting in new UCAs so I didn't care. ;)

I was able to use the OTC Pitman Arm Separator on my Chevy Astro Van when I changed the Idler Arms.
Nicet to have a Tool that works on more than one Vehicle.

Gr8, I think I've got one of these!

Bought one!

Is it still selling for about the $20?
It still was about 2 Months ago.

If so I can't figure out why that one site sells them for so little compared to the ones I have see on eBay and other Places.

The price from Tradervar (Amazon) has shot up to $29.99 + $7.89 shipping

Update of the old thread...

So if one ground down the pointed tip on the OTC 8149, would it be form fit and function like the MB tool?

Or does it not fit/work exactly the same because of some structural dimension?

This tool was almost completely useless to me on a 84 300D.
I doubt that grinding down the tip would do anything useful for you because it just means that you'll run out of threads before you make contact or you'll make contact and not have enough threads left to apply pressure to do the work.

I don't see how making the point to be flat would lose threads, but if the shape isn't right, so be it...

Thanks!!

That is funny I have an 84 300D and it worked on mine but it only works on the Lower Ball Joint it is not for the upper one.

Also the 1849 is the smaller of the 2 similar Tools the larger one is I believe an 1850

Take a close look at the attached picture. The idea is to loosen the Nut on the Ball Joint enough that there is a space between it and the Lower Control Arm; see the 2 orange lines.

The reason you are leaving the Nut on is so that the pointed end of the Tool does not expand the the end of the Ball Joint. That way there is no need for the end of the Tool to be Flat.

Also the Ball Joints on mine had an area that the point fit into which is where they center drilled the Ball Joint Part for when they turned the Ball on the Joint during manufacturing.

If for some rason your Ball Joint does not have the area that the point fits into then you can back the nut out so that the pointed end centers.

Thanks for this very useful post for these ratty problems. The OTC press looks rugged and good to know which PN fits our cars. I don't have one, but did bid on a used one on ebay a year ago (lost). I have a large & small Pitman arm puller, but recall neither fit my W123 LCA ball joint. When I do use one and the stud doesn't have a center hole, I put a small nut under it so the tip doesn't dig in. I tried the 2-hammer method, but unlike the youtube videos it again didn't work for me.

I don't like beating on the end of the stud because that can mushroom it so it won't go thru the hole when it does break free. In one case, I beat on a nut, freed the stud, but then the nut was jammed on the stud so had to hacksaw the stud to remove it. Also, when you beat it splays out the diameter so it doesn't want to go into the hole. I think beating mainly helps when you keep the gap filled w/ penetrant oil and the beating helps move rust and gives a hydraulic shock that helps free the parts. For my LCA, I resorted to a pickle fork, but had to run out and buy a narrower one and cut the tips off so they didn't hit the far side of the spindle. I don't worry about ruining the rubber boot, since I always replace that, usually w/ better polyurethane (Energy Suspension) instead of the lesser ones that come on new ball joints. In one case, I coated the lower half of the new ball joint stud w/ anti-sieze (non M-B car). A slight worry that will let the stud spin in the spindle, but should make future removal easier.

Can you post the p/n of the Energy Suspension polyurethane boot for the lower ball joint?

I bought one of those OTC 8149 more than a year ago but have not tried it and kind of forgot about it. This post reminds me to give it a try. I have a spare steering knuckle with a ball joint pressed in so that should make it easy to see if the tool fits.

The OTC 1849 Tool only removes the Ball Joint from the Lower Control Arm.

I think you mean the JTC 1849 wich is that Ball Joint Press Tool that is a Tube with sleeves and a large Punch to hammer out the Ball Joint.
See post #4
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/179284-write-up-ball-joints-lower-control-arm-bushings-tool-review-pics.html