After isolating a front end squeek/groan to the ball joint I started the R&R in the manner I'm used to with other cars. Remove the wheel, disconnect sway bar, remove the ball joint pinch bolt, pickle fork the ball joint to seperate while supporting the a-arm with a floor jack. All went fine until I lowered the floor jack and found the a-arm ball joint jamming against the dust cover/brake disk on the way down. At this point I reluctantly looked in the service cd only to find Mercedes recommends removing the a-arm for ball joint replacement. Surely this isn't required.

At this point it looks like I have to remove the dust cover which involves removing the brake caliper and wheel hub/brake disk so I can lower the a-arm fully. Is this correct or is it possible to force the a-arm past the dust cover as is?

Thanks
Jorg