Best tools for separating tie rods and control arm ball joints

Pickle forks ruin often unreplacable boots, if this is something that is going back together. If the ball is shot, then pickle fork away.

An actual puller is great especially on tough ones

Often a pry bar and whacking the casting holding the taper will fall out. A dead blow hammer is a real advantage.

TORQUE the nuts. You get some big jackass over-tightening the studs, it can ruin things and make them almost impossible to get apart. I ran into that on the Dodge RAM 4WD conversion.

Also, a big help to me on tough ones on the Dodge project was that I picked up a couple of old SPLITTING MAULS for 12--15 bux apiece and used them as sledges on the pickle fork. Yeh, they WERE that tight!!

At the price of HF pitman/ ball pullers, dont be afraid to cut/ weld/ modify them for special needs