ball joint replacement help

Just finished sinking in the upper and lower ball joints and am having issues getting the knuckle to go back up and on. I know I'm not suppose to pull the knuckle up with the bolts. When I pressed it on with a jack I didn't have a zerk fitting on the top ball joint and a bunch of grease shot out, there was a plug already in the lower ball joint so nothing came out. I just finished tightening the upper ball joint and now if I press down on it the ball joint stud will drop down about 3/16" and the knuckle lowers with it. Is this because I didn't have a zerk in the top ball joint and it needs grease? Or will I have to remove the bolt and take the knuckle off and re-press it up when I've refilled the grease and put a zerk on?

THe ball joint needs to be tightened up until it bottoms out on the taper. It should not move at all, not 3/16 either. You don't have it into the taper all the way. You can just refill the grease through the zerk fitting. The nut should pull the taper all the way in.

It is tightened down all the way on the taper, the issue is that the actual ball joint stud is moving up and down. Since the knuckle is already torqued down to the upper ball joint stud it slides up and down with the ball joint stud. The lower ball joint doesn't have a nut on it. So when the upper ball joint stud and knuckle move up and down it just slides up and down on the lower ball joint stud, since there isn't a nut to restrict its movement.

OK, sorry, now I understand. The top will have up and down play until the bottom nut is tightened down. The up and down play is taken up by the lower ball joint. The upper has to have up and down free play to allow for the variation between the steering knuckle and the axle yoke where they fit together as both are rigid pieces.

Thank you, I thought that it moved up and down. But since there Isn't any grease currently in the ball joint it probably just moves easier.