Lower ball joint replacement on 4x4 mounty

[obricko]

Recently i replaced the upper ball joints on my 05 mounty and now am realizing that my lower ball joints are bad also and need to be replaced. I've seen the guides here for older generations on swapping both upper and lowers at the same time and they have removed the steering knuckle completely.

I'm wondering if I can get away with replacing the lowers only with out separating the upper ball joints during the process?I was thinking that I could jack the knuckle up and out of the way while i'm working on the lowers. Does anyone have any tips for this?

 

[Number4]

I've used a 4 ton bottle jack (due to its physical dimensions) to hold up the knuckle while doing chassis work. If I've needed to do both sides, I used a 4x4 as well.

 

[obricko]

I tried this same method too, but I wasn't able to get the knuckle high enough for the ball joint to drop out so I ended up removing the knuckle. it wasn't as difficult as i thought it would be.

Thanks for the response.