well my car almost killed me last night!

[1977busman]

So my 1992 300d which is still in the process of getting it to run right hasnt been driven on the road alot lately. Well we have it at a point that it runs well above idle and not so much at idle. I knew that it hadnt been started in a while, so I was going to take it up the road and let her warm up andd charge the battery. I made two turns in our driveway and all of the sudden, i hear a loud ping, and a few thumps and some scraps. I imediately got out to see my wheel completely sideways in the fender well holding the car up as the control arm was laying in the gravel After some inspection it was a failed ball joint, but wait, the ball of the assembly was still in its socket, it had sheared off the rod it was connected to If I had driven 30 more feet and pulled out onto our 55mph road, I would have been in the other lane before i even knew what happened! So anyways theres my experience for the week, mixed with some fear as to why this would break like this. Our family mechanic is coming out tonight or tommorow to fix in the driveway...