>It depends. If you can lift your car high enough to let tires roll
around
>underneath, leave the wheels on. But you probably don't. It is
handy to undo
>almost everything and let the axle rotate down on the front spring
mounts.
As if you don't have enough info to confuse you, I'll add another
alternative method. When doing a rear end swap on my 'B, I dropped
my parts car onto myself by forgetting to support the car and *not*
the rear axle. I do not recommend this method. <VBG> On the
'good' car, (and I use 'good' very loosely!), I supported the car
with two jackstands under the spring hangers nearest to the battery
bins. I unbolted the brake lines, the axle from the springs, and
the rear spring hangers (right next to the gas tank.) I then took a
jack where I had one of the rear spring hangers and realized that
the driveshaft was still attached, so I spent 20 minutes detaching
it...Then, I jacked up one side of the car and rolled that end of
the axle out of harm's way. I moved around to the other side and
followed suit, setting the car onto the jackstands. It was the only
way I could do it myself without removing the springs entirely.
>The only "iffy" part is that the front sping mounts don't pivot
down like spring
>shackles and it can be holy hell getting the pivot bolts out of
there if there has
>been any rust. (Wadda you wanna bet?)
I guess I got lucky when both of my cars had free-swinging rear
springs. I can see how those pivot pins could sieze...
>Be careful, though, the axle alone is something over 200 pounds. I
know Lawrie
>says that two strong helpers can do wonders but 1) where the hell
can you find
>them and afford the beverage fee and 2) we all know Lawire doesn't
get any so he
>has all that pent up adrenalin; bench pressing axles may not be any
big deal to
>him.
Bench-pressing the axle isn't too bad. It is pretty well balanced.
I was able to convince my girlfriend at the time to help with the
job. I showed off how buff I was by holding the axle up while she
hooked the spring back onto the hanger and threaded the bolt
finger-tight. (We won't count how much cursing went on, or how sore
I was the next morning...)
Michael S. Lishego
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/3706/
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