ricospud

Alright, I have an 04 XLT 4x4, I jacked the front up, pulled the tire, unbolted the tie rod, unbolted the sway bar, unbolded the A-arm, and then unbolted the spring and shock from the top.........

NOTHING WOULD BREAK LOOSE ExCEPT THE TIE ROD.......I beat the living hell out of it, and I could not get the A-arm to come off of the knuckle for the life of me.

I spent 3 hours working on this......and ended up putting everything back together.

Any suggestions?

I used another members post with pics to help me thru this, but I just couldn't get anything to work.

Please help

SuzukiRider

Hit the knuckle where the upper ball joint goes in, it will come loose eventually. A little penetrating oil goes a long way.

They make a tool called a pickle-fork but I only use them when I am replacing ball joints because they tear the hell out of the boot.

ricospud

I did hit it there, and I used a hell of a lot of penetrating oil......It just was not breaking loose.....

Is there anything else that I need to undo?

I did notice that on my sway bar knuckle, mine is a 90 degree....where as a lot of them I have seen are vertical.....I couldn't get the bolt/knuckle completely out of the sway bar because it was hitting the shaft.

But I was seriously hitting the crap out of it.....

lastwish

I just put a 6" lift on my 04 last week so I feel your pain. Leave the nut on but backed out and hit on the outside of where the shafts go through with a hammer. Like the other guy said they will drop or pop out eventually. after you get your new level on the struts you can use a small ratghet strap to sinch it up to fit. Allso be carefull not to overtighten the nut on the CV shaft cause it will snap!

SuzukiRider

All I can say is get a bigger hammer. I tend to use a 3lbs sledge.

(By reading this post you awknoeldge that Suzukirider is not responsible for any damage results from such recommendations.)

w_pinkerton

Also you may want to use a pry bar to put some tension on the control arm forcing it away from the knuckle, then with the other hand hit the knuckle as said above with a hammer using QUICK and HARD hits.

ricospud

Maybe a sledge would have worked (but I lost my sledge on a jobsite), I had a rubber mallet, a deadblow hammer, and a regular claw hammer.....none of which worked!

And I had a 3' prybar....I even took a couple of swings with that! :-)

BolletuH

Just use a regular steel faced hammer. The knuckle is strong enough to withstand the force that you will use to knock the joint loose.

Turkey Hunter

Well there's your problem. You need a good 4lb sledge to get it good. And for the sway bar if I remember correctly its easier to unbolt the end link from the sway bar rather than the end link. But on the knuckle you definitly need the throw the little boy hammer and get a mans hammer.

jrmongi

When I put my level kit on I used several types of hammers none worked but I always carry this "homemade" hammer we used to adjust things when I worked for the rail road it saved me again but I like the saying get a bigger hammer I guess what I'm saying time to invest in a new sledge