[ceetdm]

Thank you every one for your help it is very much appreciated.

Well, armed with the advice that I got here and my new enthusiasm that the lower ball joint shaft will come off, without too much force - using the right technique - I decided to have a quick go this morning.

Bingo! got it apart!

So just to recap. I have the top and lower pinch bolts out, and the front roll bar to droplink undone. I then used a large lever (1.2m) between the lower wishbone next to ball joint and the sub frame and stood on the lever and bounced a little - the joint popped out on my third attempt - which was with the front wheel pointed in the straight ahead position.

It does look to me as alignment of this shaft is really important - but I'm no expert. When I looked at the shaft, the groove was clear on most of it's circumference , but not all. So, probably 0.5mm misalignment - so maybe the little bounce on the lever allowed the correct alignment (no longer wedged at a slight angle) and out it came :-)

Now, shocks, springs and drop links should arrive from Best of British today!

Thanks again everyone!

Tommy :-)