How to tear down the front suspension

The fist thing I would like to outline is how to remove the drum/spindle from the a-arms. This will work best especially if you plan on junking the old drum/spindle. I tried the ol-pickle fork routine and found this to be much easier.

1. Knock lug nuts loose, get the front end on jack stands and remove the tire.
2. Remove the cotter pins from the upper and lower ball joints along with one on the tie rod.
3. Remove the bolts from the tie rod and the upper and lower ball joints where it attaches to the spindle.
4. Knock the tie rod free from the lower a-arm.
5. Remove the bolt attached to the sway bar.
6. On the lower a-arm remove the nut attached to the lower bump stop, remove the bump stop and then replace the bump stop so it will come out easily again.
7. Remove the nuts attached to the two bolts on the lower ball joint. You will not be able to remove the bolts at this point. The spindle is in the way.
8. Place the floor jack under the lower a-arm and jack it up just enough to support the lower a-arm.
9. Remove the two nuts and bolts from the upper a-arm
10. Remove the upper bump stop. You will need to jack up the floor jack to give you enough space to remove the bump stop. Lower the jack stand back down to where it was in step 8
11. Pull on the upper ball joint to remove it from the a-arm and tilt the drum/spindle forward.
12. You will see that there is enough room to knock out the two bolts on the lower ball joint
13. Once the bolts are removed then pull the lower bump stop out while support the drum/spindle. Then pull the drum/spindle towards you and free from the lower a-arm
14. Carefully unbolt and remove the two bolts holding the shock in place at the bottom.
15. Remove the upper bolt from the shock and drop it down and remove it
16. Standing in front of the car slowly lower the a-arm until the floor jack is all of the way down.
17. If the spring still has some pressure to it. Take the floor jack and raise the front of the car up some more. You will be able to raise it enough to re-leave all of the pressure on the spring and be able to safely remove it.
18. Remove the two bolts on the lower a-arms on the inside.
19. Knock the bolt free on the side closest to the bumper of the car.
20. You can know remove the lower a-arm. Leave the other bolt in place. It is a pain to get out and then replace.
21. Open up the hood.
22. On the upper a-arm you will see a cross bar attached to the frame with two nuts on the outside of the a-arm. Remove those nuts first.
23. Remove the bolts from the cross bar attaching it to the frame. you can know remove the upper a-arm

There you have it the easiest way I have found to disassemble the front suspension on these 54 Fords.