Hi Kevin, Yes you do have to seperate the ball joints from the control arms to get the spring out.You can probably leave the upper one there but I removed the upper control arm to give me more room to fit the spring compressor on the spring. To seperate the lower control arm from the ball joint I used the claw on a claw hammer as a lever against the ball joint.I put the claw between the control arm and the steering knuckle and levered it up and down and the ball joint popped right out. Also be sure to check the condition of your control arms while it's all apart.My lower one on the left side cracked recently. Good luck with it. Cheers, Andrew VIN 2883 Sydney,Australia To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/