Gear shifter linkage

[andrew]

I'm making a box of stuff to send to the powder coaters and am currently stuck on the gear shifter linkage, there are two ball joints either end of the thing and i want to know how to get them seperated? I was going to use brute force but thought i'd ask somebody else first. So should it come apart with a big pull or do i need some sort of tool to do it without knackering the joint?

Thanks