Originally Posted by qwerl

I just finished replacing the driver side CV axle on my 1992 Honda Accord and discovered a great way to separate the ball joint without any special tools. I used a jack to pop out the ball joint bolt. First I put the castle nut back on the bottom of the bolt just a few turns so I wouldn't mess up the threads on the bolt. Then I put the jack right under the castle nut and jacked it up about 8 or more inches which greatly compressed the spring. I used the cheap scissor jack that came with the car. Then I banged the side of the lower arm where there is a flat spot for hitting it. This is at the point just under the ball joint. The steering wheel was turned all the way to the right so I had the most room for swinging the hammer. I banged on it hard for what seemed like a long time. I may have lowered the jack an inch or two during this process because I was afraid that too much spring tension was actually causing the bolt to bind. You may want to try starting at the max height of the jack and progressively lowering the jack during your banging. Finally the lower arm popped down. At that point I just removed the jack and took off the castle nut and the joint came apart easily. The ball joint bolt was practically welded into the lower arm as I would guess most are at this age but once the stiction was broken I could easily lift the rotor assembly right out of the lower arm. I also sprayed some WD40 all around the bolt 30 minutes before I tried all this. Hope this helps.