how hard is it to put a new ball joint on? my ball joint broke while i was driving, its a 1990 cutlass supreme, 2 dr 223,897 miles on it, 3.1 v6

Which ball joint? I'm guessing steering knuckle or something.

the bottom part of the control arm, theres a bold thats stuck on the rim

the bottom part of the control arm, theres a bold thats stuck on the rim

Some you can replace just the joint, but others you have to replace the whole control arm.

Get out your pickle fork...

It's a pretty straight-forward task, and shouldn't take long.

Yep. As long as you have a separator fork to get the old one out its a simple fix. If you dont have the tool check autozone. they rent out tools for jobs like this. IIRC the cutlass had a riveted on ball joint that you had to drill out the 3 rivets holding it on and then the old one came off without the need of a fork. The new one would have 3 studs on it that fit through the old rivet holes and are held down with nuts.

If you have the riveted type all you may need is a drill and a wrench if your lucky.

you might want to read up on the process before you do it, or at least get a spring compressor before you have it blow up in your face.

Why do you need a spring compressor to replace a ball joint?