Can anyone tell me how to seperate the ball joint on the control arm from the brake assembly, is there some kind of special tool I need. For the life of me I can't figure it out, I'm pretty sure I also busted it trying to get it off, is it a pain to put a new one on?

Ball joint splitter.Drive shaft may need to come out first.
A new one is pressed in, needs a workshop with a press.

I use a fairly average splitter to break it out. to put it back in i just use a jack and jack the car straight up under the joint to press it back in

oh and if you hit it with a hammer (or if you hit anything with a hammer for that matter), you will probably break it :P

I'm just reading this thread now but I'm at a loss as to how you can use a ball joint splitter when the drivehaft is just above the joint in fact so close that you can't screw the nut off. Also, I don't know how MadMax can take the drive shaft out first because the joint has to be removed to get the clearance to remove the spline on the driveshaft. The only thing I can think of with your ball-joint splitter is that it is the fork type that squashes the ball joint boot at the same time and ruins it.

I would like to know how the rest of you have done it because it does take some effort to do it. I found the tie-rod also to be much harder to separate than other vehicles I repaired.

East, undo the strut and drive shaft comes out

Ball joint splitter generally does not do it, better off to knock the cast to deform the taper

If the joint is defective get a new lower arm as these don't like having new joints pressed in, are only thin metal