In my experience, the uppers took longer than the lowers. I did this job a couple weeks ago. I had to remove the upper arms to press the ball joints out. I couldn't get the tool I had up in there to do it. The lowers were a piece of cake. Lowers probably took me 5-10 minutes a piece from the time I took the snap ring out till the time I was putting the new snap ring on the new one. Uppers took longer because the bolts holding the a-arms were rusty, I had to fight them probably 10 minutes a piece just to get the arms off. After that, it took me 5 minutes to press out and in the new joints. I took about 5 more minutes per arm cleaning up the threads. Then about 5 minutes a piece re installing them. Taking the hub loose, and removing the caliper, and the nuts on the ball joints took me maybe 15 minutes per side, probably about the same putting it back together also. I had air tools when I could use them. I would say a decent mechanic, with air tools should be able to do this job in 2 hours or less. Plus you will need an alignment after the a-arms are removed and replaced since it will throw the alignment off. While I was in there, I also replaced my tie rod ends. Took maybe another 10 minutes or less per side. That way everything critical in my front end was new. Seems like my boots on my upper joints and tie rod ends were rotten and the grease pretty much dried up out of them. I put all greasable joints in now. I noticed I had a bad joint when I ruined a good tire. I ate the inside tread off, so it also cost me 2 new tires, if I were to address the problem sooner, I could have gotten at least another year out of them. I didn't have any shaking or noise or anything, I just seen the tire was wore out on day.
