I used a floorjack to lift up the lower control arm, in order to take the pressure of the nut that holds the upper arm. The floojack had a nice cup on it, that kept the lower arm from sliding off. I have used this method to replace lower balljoint, and upper control arm/balljoint.
I would trust a slippery looking bottle jack, like the one that Mike tried to use (glad to hear you are ok Mike), about as far as I could throw an OM617.
-Larry