The knuckle came out fairly easily. Yay for ball-joint press and tie-rod-end press!
I wasn't able to remove the caliper bracket until the knuckle was off the car, providing better access. Surprisingly, the rotor was not rusted on.
The wheel bearing feels smooth and tight.
I've learned the hard way to not try to remove the ABS sensor from the knuckle, at least here in the rust belt. I disconnected the cable at the connector under the hood, and pulled the under-hood wiring out through the grommet to the wheel well.
The ball joint was free to move up and down in the knuckle, held in only by a small portion of the broken bolt.
Our working theory is that the shop/used car lot where my friend bought the car had, at that time, a tech who took shortcuts. (He's since been let go.). It's possible that he started to replace the ball joint, snapped the pinch bolt, and signed off on the car as-is. Or perhaps he replaced the ball joint, and broke the bolt reinstalling it.
We drilled out the bolt, which went fairly well, because we had the pilot hole on the unthreaded side of the knuckle.
Anyway, the bad clunking/knocking was due more to the ball joint moving in the knuckle than wear in the ball joint itself. But it is a bit sloppy, and of course we're going to replace it.
So far , so good ...
. I tried drilling it out but I messed it up. The used knuckle I ended up with was like yours, someone fiddled with it before I did and I couldn't save it, SNAP! Second knuckle came with the ball joint already removed.
Good luck!
