if you could not get the circlip on, then possibly the joint was not fully seated. Also, I found the only way the circlip will go on easily is to remove the rubber boot on the balljoint. I don't thing it will fit over the boot without deforming.
Once you take the boot off and fit the circlip, here is only a very narrow margin to fit it in terms of the seating. You should be able to look at the base of the joint as it protrudes from underneath the control arm and it should be obviously pressed all the way in. If it is not, that is, there is any gap between the lip/shoulder of the balljoint and the control arm, the circlip will not fit on as there is insufficient clearance on the groove on the joint for it to engage. It takes some serious pressure to get them to seat. I used a workshop heavy duty vice with a metre extension to the vice bar. This is around the limit of pressure you can exert from a workshop vice without bending the arm. Hammering them out takes forever, which was what I did to remove the factory one, before I made some steel sleaves (from old 940 exhausts) to use the vice.
If you buy the control arm with the ball joint already fitted it will have been pressed in. There are quite a few other cars out there (like a fair few Hondas) with pressed-in balljoints. The last one I pressed in lasted 18,000 miles, which is a poor show for a suspension balljoint, they still should last more than that, but it was fairly cheap. The factory joint on the other side has been on 20 years and passed the MOT and that was pressed in.
You can avoid the problem completely by buying a 940 which has a bolt on suspension balljoint arrangement on the strut base and no flat-stamped style control arm. My 940 suspension balljoints have lasted 30 years.
Welding should sort your s40 though...if you bought a good quality balljoint then you are good for 30-40K miles before you need to replace the arm. Hopefully the heat from the welding will not have liquified the grease in the balljoint...
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