microtoad,
Here is my experience with this project. I just finished rebuilding the front end on my junker 85 380SE 250K.

Lower ball joints were completely shot, tie rods were very worn, steering damper was no good, upper ball joints were fair, torsion bar bushings were in poor shape, center drag link was fair, rotors and bearings in acceptable condition. Idler arm was OK and front shocks are very tired. The track rods were completely rusted out, it's a miracle they stayed in the socket, boots gone. Here's what happened, this of course is the story of my experience and not meant as a guide to front end repair.
1. jacked up front of car on both sides, blocked rear wheels with sturdy homemade wooden wheel chocks. placed jack stands under car body at proper points and placed another set of jack stands under lower control arm.
2. placed heavy steel 9mm chain around both coil springs for added safety.
3. removed wheels, rotors, tied up brake caliper to torsion bar with wire to get it out of the way.
4. removed upper control arm bolts, disconnected upper ball joint with tie rod/ball joint separator tool. Check tension and support of lower control arm to make sure coil spring didn't pop out at 200mph.
5. removed lower tie rod from steering knuckle with tie rod separator tool.
6. removed lower ball joint from lower control arm, took entire steering assembly to a machine shop to have old pressed out and new ball joints pressed in. cost me $160 for labor.
7. removed upper control arm from torsion bar, replaced upper control arms. i didn't replace the torsion bar bushings but probably should have.
8. installed steering assembly with new lower ball joints to secure coil spring again before continuing. connecting upper and lower ball joints to control arms.
9. removed drag links and tie rods and steering damper.
10. removed track rod, this was the really nasty part. it took me 2 days. I had to drill a couple of holes in the track rod (it's hollow) and fill it full of PB Blaster, then use a 12 inch pipe wrench to get the damn things off.
11. next i beat the old track rod joint out of the assembly, it was completly rusted out and had bonded to the aluminum. I wirebrushed the assembly clean then pressed in the new track rod joints using the car's weight as a press combined with a hollow 2 inch jackstand as the jig.
12. i spent a hot afternoon trying to get the whole thing back together and finally did it. I got so mad at one point i hit my car with my fist and made a dent in the side (to go along with the others).
13. i used the mb car jack to press the lower control arm out far enough to get room to start the threads on the track rod.
14. i replace the tie rod ends and the center drag link w/ steering damper.
15. put everything back together, brakes, wheels, then lowered the car so the tires touched the ground with about 100 lbs of weight.
16. placed a taught string from each rear wheel to a jackstand about 6 feet in front of the car opposite each front wheel. using this string about 6 inches from the ground i did a pre-alignment of the wheels so i could drive it.
i set the toe in to about 1/16 inch from back to front of the front tires.
17. the car handles much better now.