Does a dead blow hammer actually help in separating tie rods and without marking the part?

A guy at work told me this, he worked in a suspension repair shop a long time ago and tells me that using a plastic mallet filled with shot will make work easier. I may try this on replacing the tie rods on my FILs car which is an old civic.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Depends where you hit. A blow normal to the ball joint pin should deform the knuckle opening enough to dislodge the pin. Where does said guy say to hit with a soft hammer?

I use one of those special tool type ball joint separators to preload the pin then smack with a hammer to get it apart.

Sixto
87 300D

He told me to smack the part the tie rods go through - I do that with a steel hammer but hitting with a plastic hammer sounds a little backwards to me.

Or am I mistaken what a dead blow hammer is.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

You're right, dead blow hammers usually have a soft face but there are steel face options. I think a hard-on-hard impact has more deforming effect than a heavy but slow and soft wallop. The advantage of a dead blow hammer is more force in the confines. And less collateral damage if you miss

Sixto
87 300D

I was on a lunch break and asked him about the sciences behind it - he said that a normal hammer bounces off while the dead blow shot filled hammers absorb this bounce and keep the hit focused on the part being hit.

gah... I'll use a 2 or 3lb engineer's hammer - the one that has two flat faces - that's what I got at HF. But a DB hammer 4lb is only 11 bucks - might have some other use for it later on...

I have a rubber hammer but Im told its not the same as a dead blow hammer - you learn something everyday - and tbh this forum is the best to learn this stuff.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

As sixto mentions any form of preload helps the separation when hit by the hammer in my experience as well. I usually utilize a five pound hammer but three pound ones may be enough.

Leave the nut loose up the threaded shank to apply pressure there. Usually you can figure out a way to do that. Otherwise sometimes they will seem really stubborn to dislodge. For example if the tie rod joint is inserted from the top a block of wood and a jack against it will do it.

Do not deform the tie rod itself though by jacking it. No need to do that. I would not use a dead blow hammer. As I think the physics are the hammer face hits the part and the balls then accelerate towards the head. So the actual force applied is spread out over a longer time interval. You would have to hit harder with an equal weight dead blow hammer I suspect.

It is nice to work in a Shop where you can lift up the whole Car and have room to swing a Hammer; for situations where there is no room for a Hammer:

The shiny one Autozone has as a free rental and the dark colored one cost Me $17 at Harbor Freight.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

The shiny autozone tool does not fit MB tie rods (at least not on my car) might work for jap and american cars so going to rent it anyway just to try - For the dark one I have one from NAPA whose tensioning bolt bent when I tried to remove a tie rod on my W124 then I went medieval blacksmith on the tie rod and it popped out after 2 whacks with a 3lb steel hammer.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

I beat my Ball Joints loose from the Lower Control Arm with a Hammer to the detriment of the Nut. I made sure I had new Nut before I did the Beating a local Industrial Hardware Store had the Nut.

Since then I have 2 bought 2 Tools that work to Separate the Ball Joints and I hope I won't have to go back to beating on them.

Perhaps due to Oil leaking on them over the Years and them not getting rusty the Tie Rods were easily popped off with the Harbor Freight Tool.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel