Best way to remove upper ball joint

Stripped threads are a pain. If the previous installer cross threaded the ball joint, the threads in the arm are going to be all messed up. I was able to thread my ball joint back into the arm even with the stripped threads. Then I tack welded the ball joint on each side to the arm. The arm is going to be useless the next time it needs a ball joint, but at least I'm going to get another 100k miles out of it.

If you're taking the entire control arm off, flip it over and put the head of the ball joint tightly in a vise. Then put a breaker bar through the control arm bushing holes and spin the entire arm off the ball joint. You can get away without needing a socket. You can also use a pipe wrench but you can kind of muck up the arm and ball joint with it. It'll work just fine but I wouldn't do it on a show car.