UBS55 Bighorn power steering balljoint

[Mudhorn]

I'm replacing the powewr steering box on my 91 Bighorn. Everything is going well, but I can't get the ball joint to split from the pitman arm. Any tips or techniques or do I need a bigger hammer!? Any ideas would be appreciated.

[slightlydodgy]

When I put power steer in (thats right mine came with manual steer!!!!!) the new box came with the arm so I ended up having to cut the old arm off the taper. If you do this take it real careful I used those thin cut off disks as you can take off a sliver at a time and continued to hammer it so that I never cut into the taper

[geeves]

If its the ball joint then a ball joint splitter should easily take care of it. If its the tapered spline then they can be painful. If your replacement box has the arm on use that. Otherwise its a hydrolic press job. Ive never done a box myself but the mechanic that did mine said the best way is to do it before taking the box out and put a bearing puller on it from underneath and hit it from the top with a truck tyre bead breaker.

[Mudhorn]

Thanks for the info guys. I went for the ball joint splitter option as I want to be able to reuse the box once I've replaced the seal. I got a splitter from Repco, Hornby for $19.95 (the label on the shelf said $54, but I didn't complain!)
The tool worked great! Got the old box out. Installed the new box, it was really hard getting the pipe fittings attached as I couldn't get the thread started due to limited access. Got it sorted after "trimming" the inside wheel arch! Anyway, job done! Thanks again.