Ball joint cut, are my knuckles hosed?

[capncrunk]

I just got some parts from a guy to do a rear disc conversion on my '90, and just noticed it looks like the ball joint was cut off, and the remainder of the bolt is still stuck in the knuckle. Is this going to be a big deal to remove, or will an easyout do the trick? The nut looks funky like it locks, or something... Has anyone had to do this before? Will I have problems using the control arm/ball joint from the drum setup?

[EJX_Michael]

Get the nut off if you can than use a punch and a hammer to pop it out.

[capncrunk]

OK I was worried because it looked like the part that was cut was actually fused or welded to the knuckle or something, but I filled a couple little ziplock cups up with penetrating oil and submerged the whole end of each knuckle into the oil for a couple days, and not only did all the rust and gunk brush right off so I could actually see what was going on, but the nuts came right off with hardly any effort. Now I can see that the bolt should totally come out too with a quick hit of a punch and hammer.

I think I might just pick up new UCAs/ball joints too because the current ones on the car are probably shot, or will be after I take a fork and hammer to the joint (though I haven't actually looked at it yet). Is that generally a good idea? I've read that just replacing the ball joint without the UCA isn't a good, but I've also read people arguing the opposite.

[19dabeast85]

On the rears, it's just as cheap to replace the whole arm as only the ball joints.