Here is an actual real time photograph of me after going to HF today:
The ball joint separator that is kinda like a crab claw that I bought at HF, it was missing the screw!!!
#$!&*!!
They were out of the big air hammer. I did get an air hammer pickle fork.
So then I was beating on a pickle fork for a while tonight to work on improving my upper body strength, since nothing else seemed to be going on except that... And I nailed my right ear with some sound damage. Ear all of a sudden felt clogged up, started ringin' like a mofo, and everything in that ear sounded like AM radio through a blown speaker. The buzz and everything. Everytime I said something, it sounded like a blown speaker in my head, buzzing on every sound. Very bizarre. I've shot a lot of guns without hearing protection, this was way different. Had to stop. The blown speaker buzz is gone now after a few hours, but still ringing now. Need to rethink my hearing protection plan which before today was nothing.
So while I was ruminating, analyzing, and examining, I looked at these ball joint separators thinking about why they aren't getting the job done. I got it. They don't seat in properly to work. The spread will not go all the way around the spindle on the ball joint. It only goes in maybe half way. Using a caliper I started measuring things. About 1.5mm too little on the spread. That means the end of the spindle is not engaged squarely and fully on the bottom jaw of the spreader. This causes the spreader to wiggle out and pop off the knuckle. I think I am going to grind this spreader out 2mm and the spreader will then square up hopefully and I'll crank on it till it breaks the joint or breaks itself. I still got the air hammer to try, but am not feeling real confident in that honestly. I'll try that after the separator issues are addressed. But I'm really thinking cutoff wheel. Cutoff wheel vs Separator.