Hey, just wondering if there are different sized of pickle forks for seperating ball joints. The reason I ask is I just bought one from auto value parts, and it won't fit on my balljoint between the control arm and knuckle. Do I have some weird balljoints, or is there a bigger size of pickle fork that I can buy? This is for the front balljoints on an 84 btw.

Not sure I can help. One thing I can say is that when I went to autozone, they had 2 available pickle forks. I told the guy I needed the one for the rear ball joint (one of them is supposed to be for the tie rod). He told me that they are the same thing.

Looks like the 2 they have are identical.

You say it won't fit. Are you sure. At first, it won't and shouldn't. You have to pound it in there to separate the joint. If it fit, it wouldn't do the job.

Dave

There are two sizes of forks. One is for tie rod ends and one is for ball joints. The bigger one is for ball joints.

I prefer using the ball joint separator tool versus the pickle fork. The tool will not damage the boot which the pickle fork almost always does.

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1988 GT (Firebird Interior),1988 Coupe (Daily Driver), 1985 SE (Project Car), 1985 Coupe (parts car), Firebird Interior Installation Website

I've got a pickle fork kit that came with 3 different size heads, plus two handles - one for a standard .401 air hammer, and one normal BFH handle.

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87/88 V6 5spd "FormulaGT"

My pages: http://www.fieroclub.com

http://www.fierohut.com

I'm with JScott. I think Rodney sells the seperator tool. It costs twice as much but the little boots on our ball joints are hard to find so I don't like to destroy them. The only way I have found them is to buy another ball joint.

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quote Originally posted by 1MohrFiero: The only way I have found them is to buy another ball joint.

Prothane sells really nice poly ones. I think they came 2 to a pack (been a while since I've opened one).

All you have to do is lightly hit the knuckle with a hammer ( or upright if working on the rear ) and it will all seperate, I have never used a pickle fork on a Fiero - or rather never have had to because of this method. The pickle fork will just tear the boots off of the ball joints and scratch the hell out of the suspension components

I've heard that if you hit it just right it will separate. I'm not sure where that is I should hit it, so I used the separator tool. It's a no-brainer.