Ok fellas. Ive been taking lots of pics of this which Ill post later but my truck is completely torn apart and I had to get a ride to work this morning. Im currently installing a rough contry 5" lift on my truck and Ive hit a snag. I bought new UCAs, inner and outer tie rods and lower ball joints so I could replace them while Im in there. Well I got everything apart, installed the rear lift, front crossmembers, dropped the diff etc etc and Im to the point where I have to put the lower control arm back on. Well I had planned to press the ball joint in before I did. Only problem is there is a metal plate welded over the ball joint, so I cant even press the old one out...

So my question is this.. Can I just grind or chisel this off or is there some trick to it? I am kind of at a loss here because I have never seen this design and I cannot fathom why they would weld a damn plate over a serviceable part?

 

post a pic, i did mine and didnt run into this

 

Camera is at home but here is a pic I found. Very, very similar to this setup.

 

haha its a blocked site. Cant see it

EDIT: ok its on dodge talk. Mine had snap rings, that looks like its got three tabs that you need to pry back.

 

Haha damn I wasnt fast enough fixing it..

 

after taking the key/castlenut off and hooking up the ball joint puller, will the tool not push the ball joint out the top or are the arms of the tool too narrow and resting on that ring?

 

Thats the thing is it just looks like a stamped cover. On mine it doesnt look like you can pry anything back or anyhting.... either that or its so rusted that I cant even tell.