I like replacing the tie rod assembly. If you have done many front end alignments, the mechanics use channel locks to turn the tie rods leaving gouges and grooves. No big deal unless they also round the bolt heads on the tie rod locking nuts. Take a look after you take of the road grime off. I would get the tie rod assembly. Make sure you pay attention to the color coding. One is black and one is light green. A pain when you have them both removed and you forget which goes where. I have done that and luckly I have two 124 Wagons.
In refernce to the ball joint issue, I would replace the lower control arm assembly. In my experience, the control arm bushings wear out before the ball joint does. Of course you would have to remove the spring, which you have to deal with anyway when you replace the ball joint. You will not have much room to use the tool while the control arm is in place. How do you plan on keeping the spring in place? I prefer to replace componenets instead of parts.

Henry

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