Ryan seeing as your car is a 98 E0, it probably has the horizontal style bushings, which tend to be a LOT more resilientthat the POS vertical style that all 98+'s have. When those go on a vertical setup, your best scrapping the entire A-arm and buying new ones as you get a new ball joint too in the process. IIRC, you can get upgraded replacement bushings for the E0, the E1's etc have non replaceable bushhing. Also Bill Jenkins for one sells replacement lower ball joints too (same for all years of Contour)which are actually better than the stock ones as they have a grease nipple on them that allows you to maintain them.
I would NOT be surprised to hear you have trahsed lower ball joints with the age of your car, but hopefully your tierod ball joints are fine as they require a realgnment for sure when you replace them - mind you replacing the lower ball joints requires a realignement afterwards as well.
Check out with Bill Jenkins the cost of two new a-arm assemblies, complete with bushings. I'll bet they'll be at least $100 each, but it may be more cost effective to swap out the entire thing if they have several worn items attached to them.
I'll assess them when you bring the car in and give you a firm answer on what needs to be replaced and what doesn't. Once againI would be able to replace any of those suspension components for you if need be.
