Fiesta Mk6 front springs.

Undoing a tapered ball joint is vastly easier with a proper ball joint splitter, in the absense of one then you can spring the ball joint out by using two heavy hammers, one as back up and the other to hit the side of the arm at the pin location, it is a bit of a trick to do, and I would avoid it, it would be a side of the road in the wilderness thing as far as I am concerned. It is recommended to replace the bolt/nut, but I doubt that anyone does unless they have really messed it up taking it out.

I don't think I need to touch either ball joint to get the strut out of the knuckle clamp.

Workshop manual says remove the pinch bolt. Shows a lever tool being used to spread the knuckle clamp and release the strut. Can't find that tool on internet.

ah, sorry, I know the sort. You can spread the clamp with a small chisel. Sealey or clark do sell the right tool, look in the machine mart catalogue, it is in there.

Or Laser do a cheap one that you rotate in the gap