ball joint

ok, 1996 grand am, i need to get off the lower ball joint on the control arm. help me please, its an emergency!!!!

You will need to jack the car up and disconnect the nut holding ball joint in place by removing the cotter pin and the nut. Once you do this use a seperator tool to drop the lower control arm. Drill out the rivets from the ball joint and replace it with a new one. Bolt everything back in place and tighten appropriately. Take to an alignment shop to have the alignment checked. Your are on the road again.

thanks that helps. what i am trying to do is replace the control arm, so what i understand is that once the nut is out, that bolt should slide out. becasue i got the codder pin out, and the nut off, but it seems to be stuck. i dont have a seperator tool, is there another way to do it?

No! if you try to use anything but seperator tool you will damage the ball joint. You can buy one for about $10 at autozone or rent one from a local tool rental place. This is only a couple minute job once you have the right tool to seperate it.