430 Top ball joint, trouble removing rear control arm

I was replacing my upper ball joints with the ones from hill engineering only my fronts needed doing, but I figured I’d do the rears anyway. Fronts were easy. I propped the wheel hub up after removing the wheel, undid the bolt holding the ball joint to the wheel, then unbolted the flanblocs, and maneuvered the control arm out. But when I went to do the rear right, I could not get the top control arm out. Obviously the front wheels have more play in them from the steering rack, but I could not manage the same on the rear right. Out of curiosity, I tried the rear left, and that had barely enough room for me to get it out. I’ll leave both rear ball joints in for now, but I’d like to do them sooner than later.

Is there a trick to the rears? Obviously I can just start disassembling more and more bits of the wheel and suspension, but I’d prefer to only undo whatever is necessary to get the job done. Any ideas?

 

Maybe that’s enough to give it some play… I almost did exactly that too, but the fact that I didn’t need to on the left side was why I was hesitant to do so, as I prefer to not touch anything that could screw with alignment unless I need to. I also thought maybe because I have to make three right turns before getting in the garage that somehow that’s making more room on the left side… I don’t get the whole e-diff / LSD combo thing… nor do I care to. Haha

Do you by any chance remember the torque specs for the tie rod if I go that route? I’m sure I’ll find in the service manual, but if you’re anything like me, sometimes you have it memorized for no particular reason. I will now never forget that the flanblocs are 20Nm, the ball joint is 50Nm, and the wheels are 100Nm.

 

25 NM, does that sound right? Here’s what I found in the manual:



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I appreciate the help! But I got it sorted today. For the rears, I did as mentioned above and unbolted the tie rod. One small step made all the difference.