Love the "mine's older than yours" competition!!...agree the scissor type work well on the M3W and as a mid-70s Mini owner, I have been splitting ball joints for a long time but don't recall when I bought ours...

I have the Sykes Pickavant one bought to do an XJ6 in 70's. I failed to get a ball joint off a tractor with it. I had as much pressure on it as I could get but it did not move. I decided to hit the joint with the tool still on , bad move. The tool shot off but missed me & the tractor.

That reminds me of how I used to do large tractor and combine ball joints without damaging the rubber boot.
With the nut at the bottom of thread to protect it, put a bit of pressure on it with a hydraulic jack, then bash the side of the steering arm with a hammer, the female part, and it will pop out.

I also use the RogG type, also 40+ years old! I should mention though that the first time I attempted to break the top joints on my (2012) car the tool on it's own wasn't up to the job. I ended up cutting a piece of 2x2 timber to fit between the upper wishbone and the garage floor (leaving the wheel an inch or two off the ground) and then whacking the loosened joint nut (via a piece of hardwood) with a club hammer. They eventually came undone with quite a bang! Upon reassembly I used a smear of copper grease on the cones and since then they have come apart very easily using the tool.

SO I finally got my 2 brandy new First Line FBJ 5150 Ball joints from my dealer. Planning on doing both lowers. A couple of questions:

Each Ball joint came with a small bag with 3 sheet metal pieces. One large thin washer that will fit under the base of the large threaded base of the Ball Joint, also one small rectangle, and one T shaped piece, both with a hole the size of the threaded tapered shaft. What the heck are these? Are these used in our application? I am assuming not.

When the front of the car is jacked up with the A-Arm (wishbone) hanging down loose, tire off the ground. Is the Spring fully relaxed?

As far as removing the base/body of the Ball Joint from the upright with the huge 46MM nut on it. How have people been doing this with the least drama?

The sheet metal parts are not used, they are locking tabs used in the original application for these ball joints. MMC have used Loctite on assembly.
I used an electric impact wrench with a deep socket to undo them, I couldn't shift them with a conventional spanner. There is no load on the spring.

Thanks ROG!

I used a similar method but with 2 hammers, one ballpeen hammer to focus the force toward the steering upright and the other(big hammer) to hit the ballpeen hammer face. They popped out nicely.

Now the question is what is the torque spec for the ball joints?

I have a multitude of extractors these two work well, especially the large one.

And what torque setting did you set the new one to?