Removing front strut

[ZetaTre]

Today, althoguh I was totally missing the motivation (and I must admit that's part of the problem), I decided to remove the front passenger side strutt to replace the upper mount which cracked.

I got stuck so I went back and checked the TIS and is says I need to remove the two bolt joints (control arm and steering tie rod) to basically remove the wheel hub.

Is there a way around it? Would the traditional ball joints fork or is required some fancy tool?

PS: I think the ///M has the old design...

 

[ZetaTre]

Finally got back to this yesterday and managed to replace the strut mount.

I end up removing the steering knuckle from the control arm as recommended by the TIS: it's not that hard at all as long as you have the proper tool. You need a ball joint separator like this one:

The two ball joint (tie rod & control arm) broke loose with no problem.

Disassembling the strut it's a bit tricky too: the srpings only have 2 coils exposed and the traditional spring compressor like this one

couldn't compress it enough. I had to buy a different one

And clamp it on the upper and lower plates: although this is not the proper way to do it worked just fine (just be careful)