Ball Joints 97 Jimmy Help Please

Ok I've done ball joints before on 2wd cars and trucks and it was a piece of cake. So I decided to do my upper and lower ball joints on my 97 4wd jimmy. Well lets just say Ive ran into problem after problem.

My first problem is the lower ball joints. Ive followed the instructions in my chilton book and have gotten the rivets out and everything is ready to comeout, except one problem, the lower ball joint is blocked by the cv joint from the 4wd. The only possible way I can see to get the ball joint out and a new one in is to move the entire hub away from the cv joint so I have room. But now here is another problem. I cant get the half shaft to move to get the hub away from it.

Did anyone have this problem. I've tried using a piece of wood and smackin the crap out of it, and I've used C clamps but I think I might have to find a tool to seperate the hub from the axle.

This has got to be the worst ball joint job hands down haha. Any help or advice would be nice. Thanks.

You have to seperate the lower ball joint first. Put a jack under the lower control arm and support it. Then use the pickel fork to seprate it from the spindle. Once you have seperated the ball joint. you can then swing the spindle assy up enough to pull out the short shaft by dropping the inboard side first then sliding the shaft out of the hub assy.
I had to do the same thing on my '96 and that did the trick for me.
Hope this helps.

Thanks I'll have to give that a try.

When you drop the knuckle assembly, you will have to push the cv joint back... Disconnect the upper portion of the knuckle from the upper ball joint. (Pickle fork it) Bring the hub nut out till it's flush with the end of the shaft. Bang on it with a hammer until it release, move the cv shaft out of the way, now seperate the lower ball joint with a pickle fork..