a coupla dumb question - trunk strut removal and G20 front upright removal

[davidpertuz at mindspring.com]

I feel a bit dopey asking this, since generally I'm pretty capable, but I can't figure it out. First, the easier one:

1) trunk struts - is there a trick to removal other than brute force? I was in a pick-a-part today with a friend and found a G20 that, lo and behold, had good trunk struts. But getting them off is tough. Upon getting one ball and socket apart, it appears that there's a snap ring, but I can't think of any tool fine-pointed ehough that could spread the snap ring with the ball in the socket. Is there a trick to this, or do ya just honk on it?

2) Front uprights - the lower ball joint is easy, but how do you separate the upper joint? Or can you separate it at all? I need a new WB on the front and would like to replace the whole thing as a unit to avoid downtime on the car, but it seems rather unnecessary to remove the whole 'banana link' between the upper BJ and the outer end of the upper control arm. Yet....I don't have a clue how to separate that joint. The cap does not appear to pry off, and doesn't seem big enough to be hiding a castle nut anyway.

thanks,
David