Here's a short video on the fastest way to remove a complete Toyota front strut assembly out of your Tacoma, 4Runner, FJ Cruiser, Landcruiser, Hilux, Prado, Fortuner, or Lexus GX470 and GX460.
1. Remove 2 lower ball joint bolts holding that bracket to the spindle.
2. Loosen and remove the 3 top nuts holding the strut mount to the tower.
3. Loosen then remove the lower strut bolt holding the strut to the lower control arm.
4. Loosen the front and rear alignment cam nuts without changing cam position.
5. Swing down lower arm and remove the strut assembly down from the bottom.
NOTE: If your vehicle has KDSS, you will need to disconnect the KDSS sway bar from the lower control arm as a first step so that it isn't holding the LCA from swinging down when you're ready to pull out the strut.
Reassembly is the reverse of this process, and is very quick and easy. This is why pre-assembling the struts before hand is way faster than having to reuse the old strut top mounts. You can keep those assembled and just leave them alone.
Why bother wasting time separating ball joints and tie rod ends and all that other mumbo jumbo that wastes time and also gives you more nuts and bolts to have to remove? With this method there are only 8 nuts/bolts to loosen or remove per side. That's not much at all.