new to this vehicle and could use alot of help please.I have a 1998 4wd ls blazer and am in the process of trying to remove upper ball joints .I have the truck up on jack stands and have the bolts out of ball joint but seems to have alot of tension there is there something else i need to do beside s trying a pickle fork just seems awful tight and not sure it should be .Any help would be appreciated thank you very much.

 

by bolts out of ball joint you mean the four that hold it on the upper control arm?
if not then there are four rivets holding it on the control arm.

what i have done before is loosen the castle nut on the ball joint shaft and use the fork to get it free. having the nut on there will keep it from jumping out.
do you also have the lower control arm supported?


if your unsure of procedure, look on youtube for a vid...there are a couple.
when unloading suspenion parts....be aware of pinch points.

dont mean to talk down to you, i just dont know your exp. level.

 

^^^^^ "do you also have the lower control arm supported?" This is helpful to avoid soiling your shorts when the joint breaks loose

With jack stands under the frame, put a floor jack under the lower arm, close to the lower ball joint, and jack it up an inch or so, just want to push the knuckle up a bit to remove the tension. Remove the ball joint stud nut. Stick a pickle fork between the knuckle and the ball joint and give it a whack it with a VSP, (variable swinging press /BFH). It'll only take a couple of whacks, if the VSP is big enough All of the tension is removed so the arm and joint will only pop an inch or so when it breaks loose.