im in the process of doing mine and i came here to check how much play is considered ok for my ball joints. i cant tell you for sure if you need to take off all the parts i did to change control arms, but in my case i needed to remove the hubs to replace the bearings. it MAY be possible to only need to remove the 14mm bolt and nut holding the ball joint to the knuckle, but you will likely have to hammer down on the control arm to pop the ball joint out of the steering knuckle. im not sure if there is any room to do this with the whole assembly still together. i would suggest getting your new control arms and then jacking the car up, remove the wheels and spray penetrating oil on the bolt/nut and where the stub is held in place on the steering knuckle/hub. if you cant get it off you are going to need a 32mm socket to get the axle nut off (there is a small indent in the axle end, and a tab on the nut itself that is bent inwards to keep the nut from spinning off accidentally, you will need to use a chisel/punch to tap that small tab back out of the way of the axle so the nut can spin) also i would advise you to use an impact wrench for most of this because it will make your life easier. i tried using only the breaker bar with the socket to remove the axle nut, but even with the car on the ground the tires spun on me..... i cant explain that one, i must not know my own strength. use the impact...once u have th axle nut off, you will need to remove the brake caliper (17mm bolts) and you will also need a tie rod end separator/pitman arm puller. there is a cotter pin in the tie rod nut which you should remove and discard/replace with new. once you get the nut off (pretty sure its 17mm) you will need to use the puller to pop the tie rod out of the knuckle. (it will bang and scare the junk out of you) then its 2 bolts/nuts to remove the strut. leave one bolt in the strut and use a good hammer to tap on the end of the axle shaft to break it loose allowing you to push it out of the hub. move it out of the way and you will be able to hammer down on the control arm and pop the stub out of the hub. then its 2 bolts holding the 2 inner ends of the control arm. (havent taken them off yet so not sure what size they are.)
if you can change your brakes and stuff like that, its not super hard to do all this, just time consuming. most part stores will let you rent the pitman arm puller i mentioned for free, as long as you have a credit card. if you dont have a good set of sockets, impact sockets as well i wouldnt recommend trying it.(i have split non impact sockets when using them with my impact) also a breaker bar is a good idea.
