I did mine too without removing the control arm. It was really a pain to seperate the knuckle from the ball joint. Now I ordered new ball joints . It was bad anyway, but I tore the boot in the process. Others I have separated had a tapered ball joint so all you had to do was hit the knuckle with a really big hammer and it would pop out. Not so easy on the contour. Also, the bearing would not press out. The machine shop destroyed the bearing while trying to remove it. They had to weld a bead around the inside of the outer race to shrink it enought to get it out. What a pain!! Hope the otherside doesn't go out anytime soon!!