[landlord]

This should help you all a bit. Instead of taking the ball-joint assembly apart, you can just slide the halfshaft right out . Just take out the two strut bolts, and then turn the wheel the opposite direction of the side your working on. This gives you plenty of room to slide the shaft right out. Plus, you don't have to worry about breaking that damn rubber seal on the ball-joint. Trust me, this works.

good info thats the way i always do it, disconecting the balljoint from the steering nuckle is a real bitch some times!