Ball joint removal

["Allan Weidenheimer" <allanw@domain.elided>]

The trick Joel suggested is great, I've used it for years.  I add one
thing though:
Use two hammers, one held against one side, then hit the opposite
side with the other.  The second hammer helps, so that you essentially
apply pressure to two sides, helping the taper to pop apart.  A great 
benefit of this is that it doesn't ruin the rubber dust cover like
a pickle fork or some of the other press type ball joint tools.

Allan Weidenheimer
72 1210 Pickup

Side note for rear main seal replacers:
  I just did this a few months ago.  I pulled the tranny.  Next
time, I'll pull the engine!  I've done that in 4 hours, it took
much longer than that to get the tranny out, and  top that with
100's of cycles of getting under the truck, then getting out to 
get a tool I forgot, then getting back under the truck....etc.
Added benfit of pulling the engine is you can clean it up
nice, maybe even repaint it ("puff can rebuild").