Hi experts,

I am a 'as needed home mechanic' , working on my 96 civic EX only when it needs servicing like oil changes, tune up, or anything on an as needed basis. Recently I have noticed front end emits a clicking noise when I make turns, so I checked underneath and saw the outer cv boots are damaged. So I figured the cv joints will need to be replaced and attempted to replace the axle shafts myself. I have a Haynes manual and thought this won't be too hard....and out I went and bought reman. drive axles and did the following according to the manual:

loosened the 32mm axle nut
jacked up the car and sat on jackstands
removed tire
removed damper fork
removed the lower balljoint castle nut
***Tried to use a 4" gear puller to remove the lower balljoint. This didn't work as the clamp keeps slipping off the lower control arm as I apply pressure to the clamp and the clamp eventually got bent out of shape...

Then I went and bought a Pitman Arm puller hoping this will work.
But I can keep on turning the bolt on it but the balljoint just seems like a rock and not even moving a bit.

Afraid of screwing up the threads on this balljoint bolt at the lower control arm, I did what the book says, loosen but don't remove the castle nut and apply pressure to the nut. Well, I did and I ended up damaging the threads on the bolt due to the fact that the pressure applied by the puller actually pushed castle thru the threads. Damned...

Still, the stubborn balljoint still won't move a tiny bit as if it's all welded together in one piece.

I did not use a fork as I am afraid to damage the balljoint/or grease cap.

It seems like everybody can do this easily but even with pullers I can't take the lower ball joint/lower control arm apart. I am the most frustrated guy in the universe and am about to take it to a shop and have professionals deal with this....I don't mind paying someone to do it, but this certainly should not be this hard and I just don't know what did I do wrong? Why is the ball joint so hard to remove?

Thanks for any input....

Civicfan8 in San Francisco