Can't get Ball joint in LCA!!!!!

[Jecker]

Hey guys so I'm changing out my lower control arm ball joint (i have the white line bump steer kit version if that matters) and surprisingly it came out pretty damn easy compared to some horror stories i read. Pinch bolt came right on out no penetrating oil, popped it out the knuckle with a pry bar and some love, pickle fork did the trick getting it out of the LCA.

 

HOWEVER i can not for the life of me get it back in, it will go into the knuckle no problem, but i can not get the LCA nearly low enough to slide the bolt part of the ball joint in the hole in the control arm. I have a wild guess it's because of my stiff aftermarket LCA bushings .

 

I disconnected the sway bar and got a 6ft pry bar and had my dad stand on it and i still needed it to go down another inch or two. Tomorrow I will proceed with more drastic measures, like welding together a tool like one featured in this video

however i don't have access to a lift, just jackstands. Or i might try loosening/disconnecting the lower control arm completely but im not sure if that will be even harder to get back on or not.

 

If anyone has ANY advice i would greatly appreciate it, thanks.

[CapnJack]

I remember I had the same problem when I did mine. I can't remember if I jacked up the knuckle or used my spring compressors to take some load off to be able to lift it into place. I feel like either would work though.

[Jecker]

Every time I try to jack up the knuckle it wanders outwards, away from the lower control arm. However the spring compressor is a great idea I will give that a shot thankyou.

[Jubs]

I just jacked up the knuckle, believe I used the bottom of the rotor. Little sketchy but it worked just fine.

[whitetiger]

unbolt the inner LCA connections, put the ball join in(LCA should be full off the car at this point), then get the 2 inner connection back in as they should go together easily still.