trying to get knuckle out and take to shop to have new bearing pressed in. What is the trick to separating the lower control arm/ball joint out of the knuckle?

I've tried jacking up hub assembly taking pressure off lower arm and tried using pry bar to separate but afraid to much will bend lower arm. manual shows Special Service Tool. Is there another option from this tool?

 

I used one of these on the lower control arm ball joint of my Honda Fit:
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-qua...tor-99849.html
Worked like a charm. Tried a pickle fork before using the tool above, and wound up ripping the boot. Major bummer, forced me to replace the entire control arm assembly when my original intent was to only replace a diff/axle seal.

 

Wzard999 I got a question for you. How were u able to remove the lower control arm? I'm having a difficult time in doing so. Can you help me?

 

Well. . . that would be a heckuva lot simpler on the later model Fit than it would be on the xA/xB/Yaris/Echo. The Fit a-arm would simply unbolt from its pivot points and drop. To remove the entire arm on the Toyotas, I believe you'll need to remove (or at least loosen) the cross-member, since the rear inner a-arm pivot point is squeezed between the cross-member and the car's frame. Have fun with that one ;)