pictures are always a good thing












dont mess with those ball joints lol. last set i did on my truck i had to swing a 10lb sledge about 12 times to brake that knuckle loose

 

ok, so now I'm down to the spindle. It appears attached to the apparatus connected to the darn ball joint bolt. I have three small nuts on top, and one axle nut. All are loose, but one on the bottom that is hidden below the u joint. I don't see a place where I could remove the spindle, without removing that ball joint nut.

Sorry for the delay, had family issues, but appreciate you help with this novice 4wd mechanic.

 

The spindle is held on by the six studs into the steering knuckle. There aren't any fasteners that require removal near the ball joints... The pictures provided by abig84 show this quite well.

 

x2 follow the pics. It's a b!tch to remove if it has never been done (I cut my BJ the first time I did mine because I was replacing both BJs!). The spindle slides out and then the axle shaft comes out through the knuckle. Visualize pulling on the end of the axle shaft to yank the spindle off those 6 studs.

You can hammer on the axle shaft yoke from the back, or better yet put a big chisel or piece of cold roll against the spindle from the inside and beat on it. Once it's out a hair, maybe sacrifice a screw driver and grind it into a pointy chisel that you can hammer between the knuckle and spindle (the above picture shows where it seperates). Then switch to a pry bar.

Sand the rust off and be generous with a nice coat of anti-seize during reassembly.

 

just did this today on my 84 chevy truck. I followed these instructuions after i tried to take the ball joints off. rubber hammer on the spidle broke it loose for me and slid it out. had hell gettin one of the caps in on the ujoint but then found that the neddle bearing inside the spindle is bad. I gotta go back to the parts house in the mornin to pick up my new hubs so i am gonna get a new bearing and put it all back together.