Suspension What damage am I looking at?

Even the girlfriends bobby pin coulda prevented that.

5point0stang88 said:

The bolt atop the ball joint is what gave way. It stripped and popped right off.sheering the cotter pin. The lip of the arm had cause the rotor dust shield behind both. Ask making contact with inside of rotor. No damage to the surface. I put a new bolt on the ball joint and its good now.

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Wait. This is just now sinking in. Do this: Go look at the A-arm on the other side, where the balljoint sits. Now look at the side that broke. Now go back to the good side. Now go back to the broken one. Now, do you really think that an A-arm, which is in constant spring pressure (hence why it pulled the nut right the off), is "all good" when it's only really being held in place by a pubic hair and a prayer?

maybe its a curly hair from the hulk?

Hulk hair is tough.

based on the evidence, I'd suggest he takes his car in for a thorough inspection.. looks like a huge lack of maintenance.

or maintenance gone wrong. this truly sounds like an improper install with a near tragedy as a result. I have seen more than a few.

Even if the grease fitting on the bottom of the ball joint did not slam up through the bottom and push the ball stud portion of the joint up (which it looks like in the picture to me) the castle nut looks like the threads got ripped out right under the threads of where the pin goes through, so for the love of god DO NOT try and reuse that ball joint, and in my opinion i would not reuse that control arm either. U just had a couple hundred pounds just drop on it basically, and that can tend to either crack or at least weaken steel, so if it were my car i would not trust that control arm what so ever, unless you only drive under 5 mph and less than 20 feet with that car