What ever you do, do not use a hammer to hit the joints out, it WILL, let me repeat, it WILL mess up your ball joint threads. Use a ball joint puller, it will save you time and money.

The tool looks like this:



Put the tool on like this, (this photo has a different tool,but the tool above works the same way): And when removing the cotter pin, you remove by pulling on the looped end outwards!!!



Then remove your axles with a pry bar, or big flat head screw driver...as illustrated:



Hope this help clear up some questions...