2003 Ranger 2WD Ball Joint question (coil)
 

I have the new Moog ball joints and was going to rent the coil spring compressor and ball joint press from Autozone tomorrow. However I was looking at it and I don't see why I need the coil spring compressor. If I jack under the control arm, the spring remains compressed. Can't I just jack up under the control arm, remove wheel, use pickle fork or puller to get knuckle separated from ball joint spindle (and remove tie rod ends because they need replacing too) then press out the ball joint from the control arm? Am I missing something here? I know coil springs are very dangerous and I don't want to do something stupid. Thanks.

I did almost exactly this when doing my ball joints in Nov. 2008. One difference: I had the frame up high on jack stands and used the jack to lift the lower control arm. This way, the spring was under the least possible load.

Thanks. I was able to do this job without removing the shock and using a coil spring compressor. However to get the knuckle low enough to clear the spindle on the ball joint, I had to jack the car up unde the shock/spring, then put a jack stand on the very outer edge of the lower control arm. This extra leverage compressed the spring a bit more so the lower control arm was a bit higher. I was then able to push the knuckle down to get it over the spindle and out of the way for the ball joint replacement.