Driving a creaking ball joint

That depends. With something like this the wheel could fall off tomorrow or a year from now. It's anybody's guess. But what you can do is jack up the front of the vehicle, grab a front tire and try moving it side to side and top to bottom. You should be able to move the tire a very very very little bit! If you can move it a lot or in a figure 8 pattern you should not be driving it at all!! Also the maximum amount of play in the steering wheel should be no more than two inches. That is the steering wheel should not move more than two inches before the front wheels start to turn! Hope that helps! Jim