^or get a spring compressor and pickle fork from O'reillys. the spring compressor will make it a ton easier! i used a electric impact to compress it then put it in and you can slowly decompress it and make sure everything is lined up...it was probably easier with my 7.5in spring cuz it was a good 8-9-in taller than stock.
When I put the new shock on it wont matter about the spring though because I just use a Jack for support and slide the shock out the bottom right?
you can unbolt the top of the shock and the bottom 2 bolts and it will all slide out easy. you may have to jack it up for clearance to pull it out...on 35s mines tall enough to just pull it out without jacks haha WIN!
Yeah that's how ill do it. This seems pretty straight forward right? The instructions there http://www.roughcountry.com/suspension/2wd-ford/f150-97-03-lift-kit_528.html
Yah you should be fine. You shouldnt even have to worry about breaking anything, and as for driving it to get it aligned you will be fine.
when i did my spindle lift on my last truck the drivers side came off pretty easy but i had to beat the living hell out of the passenger spindle until it popped off, you'll be fine. and with a spindle lift you don't need to get an alignment because all your doing is dropping the location of the spindle, it's not changing any part of the suspension unless you throw a leveling kit on
