how to remove a broken ball joint?

[OneLethal87GN]

I was cruising about 5-10 mph when my lower ball joint on the driver's side broke and the whole driver's side was riding on the front tire. I went back to find the top part of the ball joint and the nut with cotter pin in one piece lying in the road. I tried getting the rest out with a ball joint separator to no avail. Since there is nothing to hold the upper a-arm in place I can't get any leverage to push the bottom part down through the bottom a-arm. I've tried banging on it with a sledge hammer, hammering a screwdriver into it to try and separate it, and even trying to pry it out from below with a piece of tube and a C-clamp. The only thing I can think of doing is removing the a-arm and using a press to remove it. Would I need to press the new one in? I'm running out of ideas to get the old one out and any suggestions would be great. One good thing did come out of it. A tow truck driver was coming up to check out my car right before it happened so I immediately had it towed home. He also is interested in buying the car so maybe it will be gone in a few days and he'll have to worry about the ball joint.

 

[BOOSTEDGNs]

you need a ball joint tool they rent them at autozone

Alan

makes life a whole lot easier I found that out the hard way

 

[BandAid]

I understand what you are saying ,maybe these sites can help ,they have pics of different methods/tools avail.maybe a pic might give you an idea ,,,how about a big C Clamp,look at the sport truck link I provided
http://www.google.com/search?q=ball...illa-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[justabuickv6]

If you can't rent one from AutoZone, I picked up a Ball Joint splitter for $2.99 at http://www.harborfreight.com/.

See if you have one local.

 

[OneLethal87GN]

Well, I had a ball joint tool but it did no good since the nut on the top had broken off. If the nut were still on it would have worked. I ended up finding 3 tack welds that were holding it in. After beating them out with a screwdriver I just used a hammer to beat it out the bottom of the a-arm. Now my problem is replacing the upper a-arm bushings. All of them on both sides are completely gone. I found them at Advance Auto for $7.99 each and a friend of my step-dad's will help me replace them for $30. I've never replaced them before but I'm sure I'll get my $30 out of him.