The threaded shaft on the ball joint moves. Just wiggle it around til it lines up with the knuckle. If it's too hard to move by hand slide a deep socket over the threads. You can then add an extension to the socket and the extra leverage will allow you to easily adjust the ball joints shaft to line up with the knuckle.

 

Thanks for your advice, soulsurvives, but as shown in the photo, the problem isn’t just the angle. The ball joint is about 1.5 inches too far away from the knuckle. Any other ideas?

 

1. option one. You have bad part.
2. option 2. You need scissor jack. Just like one that came with your car. Very carefully set it securely under the rotor bottom center. Before you do so, put back on 3 lugs, to secure rotor in place. Now, slowly start jacking hub up, via rotor. As it goes up, it should line up back with the CA stud. Or, maybe some stud wiggling involved. If you look at your half axle, you will see, how far down and at extreme angle it hangs. So entire lower hub section is pushed away from its normal operating position.

3. option 3. Remove strut bolts. Remove strut lower portion off the hub knuckle. Now, you can turn hub towards the stud.

But #2 should do it for you. Just - slowly. You will have hub weight supported on very narrow area. FIY, I did this several times on various cars.

 

Come to think about it.. loosen upper strut bearing nuts, holding it in place. So that you can wiggle entire strut back-for. This should allow you to move hub lower end, with CA knuckle, up and towards the stud. Your hub lower end is angled AWAY from the CA, that's why you can't get it back on. It needs to go UP and TOWARDS the vehicle center line.

 

Update: As I went back to work on this, I noticed that the driver side CV shaft seems to have slid out of the boot on the transmission side. It has freshly exposed grease and two exposed grooves that aren't visible on the passenger side. (Picture included)

Did I pull something loose when I jacked up the hub? Is that maybe part of why it won't line up?

Thanks.

 

2nd update: I loosened the three nuts at the top of the strut, giving me wiggle room in the hub, as ukrkoz suggested. I was able to slide the CV shaft back in towards the transmission. It resisted, then suddenly went in smooth. Was that splines lining up?

Now everything lines up and I can reattach the control arm. Sound good? Anything else I should check before I drive this vehicle? Could I have done any damage to the transmission?

Thanks again.

 

You should be fine.

 

Final update: I got everything back together and it’s driving fine. Thanks so much for your help, everyone!