How big of a bind will you be in if you get the truck back and the ball joints don't fix it? Obviously there's a chance that you can save $$ by doing the work incrementally, but if I were a betting man, I'd wager pretty heavy that you're going to need a new gearbox. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Good news is, you should be able to do this work yourself, if you want to save some $$.