Boy am I gonna watch this thread! I've got to do the same job this week on daughter's '87 300E. She had a catastrophic ball joint failure on drivers side as she backed into driveway on Friday night (how lucky is that!). Was watching TV about 1AM when heard her back in. Sounded like she ran over a piece of plate steel or something. Went outside to check and didn't really see anything. No parts laying on ground or that sort of thing. Next day go out to check car. From 25 feet, could tell front end was way low. Take tire loose and jack up car. Ball is still connected to steering knuckle. Socket/joint is still part of lower control arm. They are four inches apart. Joint looks fairly easy to remove since it is pressed into A-arm and is not buried up inside steering knuckle like on a 123. Still, I saw an ad for a used 10 ton shop press, so I may just run out and buy it if it will make the job easier. Only worry is getting the spring compressed enough without the Klann spring compressor. I've got an old threaded rod/hook type compressor from working on MacPherson struts. Not sure if I can get enough on the spring with that to remove spring. It did work on the 123, but worried me.