Holy crap. So, I guess this is crazy easy for some folks, and ocassionally insanely hard. So if you're having trouble, here's the "trick". Spread the knuckle (not too much, make sure your bolt still slides though both holes relatively easily), heat it up with a propane torch (it looks cast iron, I don't think you can hurt anything here as long as you don't heat the ball joint), and seat the first section of the stud on your bench, a large vise and the 4 pound negotiator are very handy here. It'll hang again once it gets past the slot where the pinch bolt goes, that's ok. Now take it to your truck, install it on the lower ball joint. Install the control arm on the frame. Now hit the spindle with some lithium spray, place a 2x4 under the control arm to place the jack on (don't jack on the lbj spindle, pls). Jack the control arm up. More. Disconnect the sway bar if you have to, jack it up more. Lots more, you need the weight of the truck here. Once you're up nice and high, wrap a ratchet strap around the sway bar and the control arm, reef that bad boy down tight as you can. Another squirt of lithium on the stud, and now go to town with that 4 lb hammer. Hit the control arm, not the ball joint. Every 5 swings or so, give your arm a rest and crank the ratchet another couple notches. Tap the knuckle back and forth very lightly to be sure things are seating correctly. Whale on it some more with the hammer. Repeat as necessary.
After screwing around all yesterday afternoon, I slept on it and this is how I started off this morning. Once I had everything in place on the truck, it took about a halfhour of pounding and tapping to get it fully seated. Hope this helps the next guy...
