I was having a hard time putting the ball joint in and the arm was stiff and when I was pushing down on the arm so that the ball joint could slip into the hub piece the bushing did that...now,

the ball joint went in and all I have to do is reinstall the brakes and I'm done....but I want to know if there's a trick to pushing it down or do I have to get a new arm?

 

Jack the hub/rotor up (like it's a normal load sitting on the ground) and see if it self corrects

 

If the ball joint post is in the hole you might get lucky with jacking it in like Dell said. My issue was it was **** eyed and therefore jacking would not correct. I had a heck of a time working it to get it to go. So much so, I re injured my tennis elbow and my arm has hurt for the las six weeks. I redid all 4 bearings.

On the onther hand, I have also done this with the greatest of ease like it was nearly effortless. I was amazed.

I tried lots of pry bars but the angles and slope of the control arm and sub-frame makes this terrible to do. What I found that worked for me is a 36" pipe wrench opened up wide to put the jaws almost sideways to the contol arm to allow for lots of leverage to move the control arm down compressing the bushing. I think I ended up with one leg/knee on the pipe wrench and both hands manipulating the upper arm on and over the ball joint post. If that makes any sense.

Good luck