I am getting no where at all with the car.

yesterday it took me forever to get the rear driver side drum back one the car, and today I just downright couldn't get the passenger side back on.

On top of that you have to basically take apart the entire front end of the car to replace the strut inserts. I took the hub, disc, and caliper off and remove the nuts on the tie-rod and suspension arm but I can't get the tie-rod ball-joint and the other ball-joint to come out of the damn arm.

After getting the rear brakes back together now the pedal is spongy, so I'm going to have to bleed the entire brake system

On top of that I am fairly certain that I need new e-brake lines because there is rusty cracks all over both of them...

Sorry to hear all that, hope everything works out.

You need a pickle fork to get the ball joint and tie rod seperated from the spindle. You need to replace the rubber dust shields. Urethane replacements are available from most parts stores.

You don't need to remove the front brakes at all.

ken

The easy way I do it is just remove the calipers and move them out of the way. loosen the three upper bolts holding the strut mount, remove the nut from the ball joint. For the tie rod remove the nut and strike the spindle with a hammer (BFH) the spindle is really hard so it will not break, and after a couple whacks the tie rod pops out with out breaking.
Now the fun part: lift the front of the car; (get a helper and a long piece of pipe) wedge it between the sway bar and control arm, have the helper push it down to dislodge the ball joint off the spindle while you hold the strut. VOILA strut is out, and you can move the whole assembly to the work bench and work on it.
I learned this trick from my father (I think with over 45 years experience you learn some tricks)

I was thinking of potentially a similar thing I once did on an old E36 I had ... I took off the big nut on top of the strut mount that holds the spring and mount to the strut whit the car was still on the ground. I used the weight of the car as a spring compressor, then slowly lifted the car from both sides. When it got up high the set-up was in pieces and I was able to remove the spring, etc. I was thinking since this car also has inserts, why couldn't I do the same thing ... pull out the spring ... undo the big nut that holds the strut insert in ... slide the old insert up through the whole in the engine bay ... slide the new one down and then reassemble it from underneath with spring compressors without taking off any brakes/ball joints/tie rods

Would this possibly work or no?