Correct separator tool for ball joint @ lower control arm(front)

[JohnelP]

i need to change the front lower control arm. what is the best tool to separate the ball joint from steering knuckle?
haynes book says to use a prybar. Not sure i am a fan of this method. 1Aauto says to hammer the knucle near the ball joint. I may use this last resort?
On my other car i have used a screw driven push lever with 2 upper arms( the tool autozone sells for ball joint separator). I like this method most, but the tool may be too small?
Are there any tools like this for explorers? like big size.?
and there is the tapered fork (autozone, etc has it, but i hate that tool as it damages hard everything around it....

 

[KayGee]

Air hammer on control arm (replacing control arm anyway).

Pickle fork (will likely damage ball joint, but you are replacing it with control arm anyway).

BFH.

 

[JohnelP]

@KayGee - Yes, makes sense.
Looking a bit more careful at the front lower arm ball joint nut, i see it is virtually impossible to fit a socket to fit the nut without taking the CV axle first. It is about 1/4" max distance between the ball joint tip of the screw and the cv Axle In the manual, Haynes says just "remove the ball joint nut". Given it is a large nut, I do not believe a hand open wrench will be able to have the torque to remove the nut?? Also, I may feel not comfortable to use a 12 point wrench either....

I can try to cut the tip of the screw till the nut end to get extra clearance, but i doubt Ford had that in mind to be the right way.
What is the right way?

 

[CDW6212R]

The BJ nuts should not be super tight, about like a lugnut is plenty. So a wrench that size should be large enough to do it.

You only want that nut loose though, before separating the BJ. It needs a small gap at the nut before breaking the BJ loose, about 1/8"-1/4" is plenty.

A large sledge hammer is the easiest way, if you have the swinging space to safely hit the pad on the spindle where it will squeeze the BJ off. Part of the deal is to get the spindle rotated properly to make that hammering pad easy to hit with the large heavy tool. A BFH that is only 3-4 pounds is often not big enough. It takes a lot more arm strength to swing the smaller hammer to do the job, versus an 8 pound sledge hammer. Having the room to safely swing the hammer you choose, is as important as the tool itself.

 

[massacre]

CDW has it right ^^^

You don’t want to completely remove the nut before separating the ball joint from the knuckle. You may have to turn the front wheels one way or another to give yourself a good shot at the knuckle and give it a couple good cracks with a sledge.
I have a short handled blue point sledge that works awesome for this purpose.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Try this tool: 3/4 in. Ball Joint Separator