This is a story of a shop that did not have the right tool. Car squeals when turning left now.

[Littleredd]

Yikes. Peter Gabriel may have bent the brake dust shield which is making contact with the rotor. Hard to tell though. (sledgehammer anyone?)

Spot on mate, thanks, I owe you and the other guys a beer! The screech was killing my heart every left turn!

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[GTP]

My contribution to this thread.

TLDR
The photo shows just where to strike the joint with the sledge.

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I was installing the Steeda arms 555-4908 and had to get the old ones out. I searched for some tips and found this thread.

I couldn't get the ball joint loose by hammering upward on the ball stud with either dead blow or short arm sledge hammers.

I called Steeda and they recommended the pivoting style ball joint tool. #1 it was too small to fit and #2 it just didn't seem butch enough to do the job.

Then I tried a pickle fork and all that did was wreck the boot and nick the knuckle a little.

Since longitudinal force had no effect I thought, Let's try lateral force directly on the ball joint.

The photo shows just where to strike the joint with the sledge.

After less than a dozen blows, the sound changed from a "clang" to a "clunk". Then I could ease up on the strike force and it worked loose with a couple more hits.

The point is you want to hit the arm's cone out of the knuckle. Basically you are tilting the cone out of its seat. There is no reason to smack the knuckle itself (such as at the OP's shop.)

It didn't really mar the arm. You could try holding a large ball peen hammer against the arm and then strike that hammer with the sledge if you are worried about the cosmetics.

 

[NightmareMoon]

I think tapping on the seat or the cone end should work. You’re just sending a shock through there, shocking either part should do it.

I’ve only done the lower control arm, and my mechanic was scoffing at me twacking with a few times with a BFH, but popped it out pretty quickly.

Another method is to back the nut off a little and put a heavy duty socket over the nut and hit that directly in line, which won’t mushroom the end of the stud like hitting it directly with the hammer would.

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