Hi,

I need to replace both sides lower ball joints (front), but I am having troubles getting getting ball joint out from knuckle.
I pulled out horizontal pinch bolt, no problem, put a lot (and many times) of penetrating spray, hit with BIG hammers, tried to separate the cut on the back of knuckle, heated with torch....but it simply does not separate.
Of course, vehicle was on lift, but I put a rod under lower arm and lowered the vehicle, so there was quite a lot of tension on ball joint (pulling it out when I was hitting with hammer).

All in all, underhood is NOT RUSTY. Majority of other joints and bolts did undo just fine. Only this one does not want to get out.

Any idea of apropriate tool?

I have had issues with lower balljoint too but after removing it looks like the pinch bolt cuts a groove and creates a lip on the balljoint so it catches it. Sometimes its not rust or corrosion but metal that has got into contact and wont let it slide out.

Is it safe to hit few times with a chisel into cut opening of steering knuckle to spread it a little? Or can it crack as it seems to be casting metal?

You may not have any other choice to do that. They can be a real pain in the tail! Sounds like you're doing everything I would have done so far.

Well, the far most time consuming so far was:

FRONT ABS SENSOR connector, which simply did not want to get apart. Struggling with it on both sides for more than an hour with different tools.

BRAKE CALIPER SLIDE PINS, the lower one. The upper one is plain simple one-piece sliding pin with rubber boot, which I cleaned, put some grease on it and that's it.
But the LOWER ONE is pain in the ass. The pin is thinner at 1/2 length and has a rubber tube over it, so WITH the rubber it has same cross section as the other half of the pin.
The PROBLEM is when you grease it up, you create air pocket in pin hole, which pushes rubber skin off of the lower part of the pin, and rubber would be cut if you push too hard.

Most probably I would need new rubber skirt for the pin.
EDIT: Just got quoted from Nissan dealer - 2 pcs of lower slide pins with rubber bushings = 50 EUR. Yikes!


Anyways, this is my all 4 hubs + front lower ball joints + front inner CV shaft boots replacement project.