Cracking ball joints

Ive been doing a bit of work on the front suspension of the escort today, and need to replace the control arms, and the tie rod ends. Problem is, no matter how hard i tried with the ball joint splitter, i could not crack them. 
Can anyone give me any tips on how i might be able to get them to crack?
 
also, if anyone lives around the western suburbs of melbourne, and would be keen to give me a hand doing the front end (suspension, wheels bearings), let me know, as i haven't had much to do with rebuilding suspension before. 
 
 

what do you mean by hitting the strut? 
 
i wasnt even able to get the tie rod ends to crack either 

cool thanks for that mate. 
 
will it be large enough that i could use it on the suspension ball joints as well? 

haha i know the angle grinder method :P my dad and i have done some dodgy things when we were doing the front end on my XF, but it all came apart a lot easier than this escort seems to be coming apart 
 
thanks for that second link. ill go have a look at one of them tomoro. 

the screw type ball joint breakers are the way to go. wind it up tight and put some pressure on it. then give it a whack with a hammer on top of the screw. but stand back as they can go flying when they let go.
 
failing that put some pressure on and heat the steering arm a little.
 
good luck. they can be a bitch.

Try it insitu with the little dealie and then worst case pull the whole lot out and go nuts.  Agood soaking with WD40 may help.
 
Matt