Take the action out of the stock by unscrewing the stock bolt under the butt plate.
Take the trigger plate/bottom plate off the action by removing the two bottom plate screws and the rear tang screw on the bottom.
Underneath there is a loose small coil spring that activates the top lever catch,,set that aside.
You should be able to push the U shaped wire top lever catch out of the action from the action flat side with a small punch.
Inside the action the top lever coil spring is just visible on the wall behind the breech face. It's held in position with a small screw.
Remove that screw and the spring will pop out with it's plunger that pushes against the top lever spindle to give it it's power.
With that out, now take the Auto Safety rod out of the safety,,it's forward end enters that same wall and engages the Top Lever Spindle also inside there.
That's what pushes the Saftey to the rear when the lever is opened. Remove that rod.
Now on the bottom of the action,,right under where the trigger plate would be covering up is a round spindle with a screw in the center.
That's the top lever spindle.
Unscrew the screw in it (RH thread) and remove the screw.
Remove the spindle itself by pulling in out of the frame. You may need to get into the hole where the top lever spring was with a small screwdriver blade and help back it out.
The spindle only engages the top lever with 2 small pins and that screw. So there is no counter sink engagement betw the two parts to fight,so it should come apart pretty easily.
Once the spindle is pulled down and out of the frame,,the top lever comes out by pulling it back and out of the frame.
....added a couple pics of a stripped N/S frame and parts
Stripped frame,,the larger hole is for the top lever spring and plunger.
The small hole above it actually into the top tang is for it's small screw to hold the spring in place.
The other hole is for the AutoSafe bar, That goes back and is the cross pin for the safety button.
Remove all those parts so it looks like this.
(The hammers and sears are out of this one but you don't have to take those out to remove the top lever)
The top lever spindle in it's hole in the frame. In reality it'll be deeper in the hole and the screw will be in place in the center of it.
Unscrew the screw and knock the spindle down and out of the action
Shows how the spindle, top lever and toplever screw link up
Those cut outs on the spindle are where the top lever spring follower and the AutoSafe bar engage.
And one last pic just to show how the spindle and the top lever are engaged. Just a simple 2 pin spanner engagement along with the screw. The locking arm of the top lever has the small hole in it for the top lever catch to hold it open.
Hope this helps.
