Leo Lichtman wrote in article
...


The OP went out and bought a "name brand" separator and used it without
difficulty. Reread the original post.
The radial taper will apply spreading force to the fork ONLY it it is
wider
than the gap. Do you suppose that HF makes a separator with a narrower
gap
than the name brand?


The reason I own several different "tuning fork" type separators is that
they DO come in different widths.....for various sized tie rods and ball
joints.

Drive a tie-rod "tuning fork" onto a ball joint, and you, quite possibly.
will have ruined the ball joint by nicking the taper with the too-narrow
fork.

Oftentimes, you need a wider fork for the ball joints than tie
rods.......and, if you use a wider ball joint tool on tie rods, you can
sometimes separate the ball from the socket.......

.......hence the need for several different-sized separators.


More likely, true to its reputation, HF imports a
Chinese separator made of inferior material. Probably with lead in the
paint. Don't let the baby gnaw on any HF tools.



I will never argue the point of Chinese "quality." It really DOES suck!

But, tool mis-use IS tool mis-use.

Perhaps a Snap-On separator would have withstood the aforementioned
miss-use......but, it would have been tool mis-use nonetheless.