Specialized tools like ball joint presses, wheel stud pullers, coil spring compressors, and clutch alignment tools are worth their weight in gold if you know how to use them. Hours of work can be done in minutes with the right equipment.
The method and the tool required to access the ball joints on your car or truck will depend on factors such as:
▼Drivetrain layout (AWD, 4WD, RWD, FWD),
▼Suspension type,
▼Whether it’s a car, truck, or van,
▼How badly your ball joints are fused to the control arms, and
▼Whether you want to reuse the ball joints or not.
To reiterate, which tool you should choose and how you should use it comes down to your personal setup. Most ball joint presses are only as good as the techniques you come up with to make them work for your specific needs.
Let’s take a look at some of the different tools that you can use to uninstall your ball joints.
Mechanics and enthusiasts swear by this tool because of how effective it is and how easy it makes the job of separating a ball joint shaft from a spindle support arm.
Clamp-style separators can’t be used to remove press-in ball joints from the control arm and axle assemblies.
Another thing you can’t do with this tool is install a new ball joint — for that, you’ll need a c-clamp ball joint press tool.