The $29.95 front end service kit that Harbor Freight sells will extract and install ball joints without damage from a big hammer or a torch. It's hard work with that tool but it will do the job.



It's best not to hammer on these parts so you don't wallow out the mounting hole of the lower control arm. As far as falling through that hole from wear when you jack the car up, that story pegged my BS meter.



There's a huge shoulder on the lower ball joint. This shoulder supports the weight of the car. The press fit of the ball joint prevents the ball joint from moving during cornering. There is no way it's going to fall through a worn out LCA hole, car jacked up or not.... That hole could get worn and causing dangerous handling from ball joint movement but I don't see any way the shoulder of the ball joint would ever pass through the hole in the LCA. Camels pass through a needle eye more easily.