Axle seal question

[tforkner]

The driver's side axle seal is leaking on my '08 hatchback. It also has 82+ thousand miles on it, so the warranty's over. I got an estimate of about $900 at the stealership to fix it. Therefore I'm gonna break out the jacks and wrenches.

I have read the manual and it says to separate the tie rod end and the lower ball joint (among other stuff, of course) in order to remove the axle shaft out. I'm kind of leery about separating the ball joint since all I have is a pickle fork. I do have a press-type tie rod separator.

Here is my question: Could I put compressors on the strut and then just unbolt the two lower strut bolts instead of undoing the ball joint?
That's how I did it on a Ford Festiva and my old Datsun Nissan Sentra Diesel (that car really had all four of those words strung across the trunk lid).