Wow...this was a major PITA job. But I got it done and the ride is amazingly better. Very satisfying

First removed the wheel, then the caliper (hung it with a bungee from the sway bar). Then removed the lower tie rod link. I then popped out the bearings and removed the rotor and backplate. All of this was pretty straight forward.

Where I had the most trouble was definetley in trying to seperate the spindle from the lower and upper control arms. I didn't have a seperating tool and I didnt want to use a pickle fork because the boot on the UCA was perfect and it would undoubtedly ruin it. I tried the two sledge hammer technique (using one as a dolly) which worked fine on one side, but on the left side it would not budge. I must have been banging on that damn spindle for 3 hours. I finally took the advice of one forum member and unbolted the inner bolt on the UCA. With that free I could tilt the spindle back and pound directly on the ball joint stud. It popped right out!

With that out I put the spindle in a vise and with a 19mm socket and a 5 lb sledge I popped out the old ball joint in no time. I then set up the MB press and put the new Ball joint in in less than 3 minutes. I HIGHLY reccomend this tool, but it does require OE parts (lemforder, moog ...).

From there it was just reassembly. My only concern is that I didnt torque anything. I just tried to make everything tight, but not too tight. Comments on this would be apppreciated.

Areas of difficulty and things to be careful with:
-of course...seperating the spindle. I do reccomend removing the inner UCA bolt and leaving UCA attached to the spindle. It made things a lot easier. Make sure you have the LCA supported and try not to pinch the upper ball joint boot. If you do go with this method, accessing, removing and reinserting the inner UCA bolt is tricky...but I believe there are other threads on this.
-Be careful with the bearings....place them on a clean dry towel and put something over them so no dust or anything gets on them. You might as well repack the bearing doing this job.
-Using any press...make sure that when you seat the ball joint that it is seated level and evenly. It shouldn't take an abnormal amount of pressure to seat the ball joint. If you dont use the MB press it would be wise to remove the boot.

Thanks for all the help guys!

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1983 300SD White with Grey interior