My car is crippled.
 

Alright...So my car has been making this grinding noise in the front passenger side tire for months now, and Im a douche and never had it check out....so, today, due to my lack of care, my ball joint came out of the control arm.

So I was just wondering.....

How much would it be to have this fixed?

get a new arm. the ball joint popping out just blew any chance you had of repair. Takes about 2 hours to install your first time. It's actually really easy.

Well, I heard it was gonna be about...20-30 bucks for the part....and about...200 for the press. Im guess it needs to be put on the press to put some tension on the springs so the ball joint can be popped back in and bolted or whatever the fuck goes on it to keep it in the arm.

Im mega pissed.

Can't you just use a jack to do that? Not sure if we're talking about the same springs here..lol

The jack just makes the arm hang down. It has to be pressed up Im guessing.
Im no mechanic, Im just going by what it looks like.

So you need to have the suspension held up with pressure on the springs as if it were sitting on the round? You can do that with a jack

I dunno, man.
Ive got people tellin me I need to have it pressed.
I dont even know what the hell a press looks like.
And those springs are pretty stout, ya know?

Well, whenever you change out the springs on your car you use a jack to put a load on the A-Arm to keep it from flying out, I've done it, and so has everyone else that's changed out the springs or struts on their mustangs.

Well.....what do you do?
Put the jack under the control arm?

Have the car supported by jack stands, take a jack and jack up the A-arm, put a block of wood between the A arm and jack.

Sweet.
Ill try it.
Ive got a friend who's pretty mechanical savvy, so Ill get some help of course.

the ball joint is pressed into the arm as a friction fit. If you've doinked it and left it for that long and it's come out then the arm is normally damaged beyond re-use. You shouldn't do the pressing yourself since the socket needs to be checked for damage. Just get a new control arm... it'll come with the balljoint in it. Should cost about 100 bucks for the install.