Fort escort wishbone problem!?

my 1996 ford escort recently failed its mot on the left Hand side wishbone. how hard are they to replace? i have a haynes manual it it is telling me to drop the sub frame, take off the gear linkage , steering col-um ETC. that is just insane for a piece of metal the same shape as a boomerang. i have a link and this is what it looks like. >>>>http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.internetautospares.co.uk/images/escort%2520wishbone.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.internetautospares.co.uk/index.php%3Fmain_page%3Dproduct_info%26cPath%3D17_160%26products_id%3D514&usg=__CZghy6L1e7bI669cj54_UXvu0cM=&h=1632&w=2448&sz=671&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=xW8AvOzrXyt3EM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=188&ei=gmUwTcCMA8-xhAeE4pGgCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Descort%2Bwishbone%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1186%26bih%3D650%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=367&oei=gmUwTcCMA8-xhAeE4pGgCw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=63&ty=34 there is a ball-joint on the end of it where does that connect?? please help.