Beating off your knuckle joint

[toonces]

'11 700 Grizz here and I'm in the middle of disassembling one of my front knuckles to do a boot replace and I've most def reached a stopping point. So far I've got the caliper off as well as the 2 castle nuts for the knuckle and the 1 for the steering arm, but for the life of me I can't separate any of those joints the castle nuts were securing. I've beat on all of them using a big rubber mallet with no luck at all. Is there something else holding these joints together I haven't found maybe?

My next ideas are to try to detach the shock from the lower control arm so maybe that'll give way a little easier, as well as letting some PB blaster soak into the joints before pounding on them again. Thought I should ask on her first before using the PB though.

Last time I had to separate a joint like these was on my '96 Cherokee replacing one of my steering linkages. Had to get a special 2 prong fork tool to insert into the joint and pound away before it came apart. For some reason I don't think that'll be the answer for this one though.

I'm all ears.

[LT80]

You need 2 big hammers.

You use one hammer on one side holding tight on the knucke. Hit the other side of the knukle hard with the other hammer.

Should pop em right off.

[toonces]

Thanks LT. I've read a couple suggestions to use two hammers but I just couldn't visualize the technique so in the end I opted for a tool from Harbor Freight called a ball joint separator I think. Worked like a charm.