OK, I got the ball joint pin out of the spindle. Here's what I did. However, bear in mind that I have the entire front suspension (strut, spindle/hub/rotor assembly, control arm) off the car, so this procedure may not work if you have all this still on the car:
1. Completely remove the pinch bolt. You will have to drive it out with a hammer and punch once you have the 17 mm locknut off.
2. Drive a cold chisel between the two halves of the part of the spindle that the pinch bolt tightens around the ball joint pin to slightly loosen the grip of the spindle on the pin
3. Using the larger of the two available pickle forks (15/16" opening; the one with the 21/32" opening is to small to fit around the pin), drive the pin out of the spindle as far as you can. You will soon run out of room, as the pickle fork runs into the back of the brake rotor. Also, the 15/16" fork is really too wide for the job - a 3/4" fork, if it existed, would be ideal, but none of the nearby auto parts stores, or Harbor Freight, had one of that size, so I'm not sure it exists.
4. Using a heavy hammer, smack downward on the control arm. This is the part that seems like it would be difficult with the suspension still on the car, as you would probably have limited swinging room.
There are probably other ways to do this job, like buying a purpose-made ball joint separator. Harbor Freight has them for $20, but I didn't feel like spending the money.
I have a question - how do you replace the ball joint boot? It looks like it's attached to the control arm pretty tenaciously.
I'm still debating whether I should upgrade my control arms. They're overkill for the type of track driving I will be doing for the next year or two, but I can't stand the thought of throwing away the new monoballs I just bought when I eventually do need to upgrade the arms.
