cracking ball joints

[Panko]

Ive been doing a bit of work on the front suspension of the escort today, and need to replace the control arms, and the tie rod ends. Problem is, no matter how hard i tried with the ball joint splitter, i could not crack them.
Can anyone give me any tips on how i might be able to get them to crack?

also, if anyone lives around the western suburbs of melbourne, and would be keen to give me a hand doing the front end (suspension, wheels bearings), let me know, as i haven't had much to do with rebuilding suspension before.

[G Dub]

A solid strike on the strut bottom where the ball joint taper goes through should break it free. It can help to have a lever in pushing the sway bar down as it will tend to pull the arm up otherwise. I never use those stupid fork looking ball joint splitters. All they do is smash the grease boot apart

[jsa]

2 hamers, strike at the same time from opposite sides.

[stuart]

just buy a ball joint remover from SCA for $15 its saved me hours

[gen mk 1rs2000]

ball joint removers & levers are crap
use the apropriate size socket or a piece of tube
on top of the nut & simply undo the nut
the tube or socket pushes against the bottom of strut tube
& forces the tapered pin down
maybe once you have some tension on the nut a light tap
with a hammer sets them free
i learnt this trick 30 yrs ago
never had a problem getting them out
cost $0.00

[Panko]

thanks guys, had so many different ideas from here and members on classic ford...i will try all of them and see how i go

[milesiles]

If you have the time, just use gravity. Crack the nut, put a jack under it, jack it up and leave it. When you come back it will have cracked. If that does not work, shock it by hitting it with a hammer. Works a treat for 100t dump truck ball joints too. Sounds like a gun going off when they let go.