It appears that there are two schools of thought on replacing the IWE actuators. I've seen tutorials where they remove the control arm bolt and spindle to make room to slide the half shaft out of the hub. I've also seem some videos where they unbolt the half shaft at the other end and pull the whole shaft out, allowing access to change the actuator and then put the shaft back in, seemingly with less overall disassembly.

Which one is preferable?

 

i actually followed this step by step yesterday and all came out A-OK!

 

Yup, that FordTech video works perfectly, just remember to unclip/bolt hoses and wires all the way up to just behind the arch liner, otherwise there isn't enough slack to let the knuckle hang down fully.