Hi, i think it looks pretty simple but i want to make sure i do it right. i have an 87 mustang gt. can anyone give me insturctions on how to unbolt the 8.8? i want to drop the rear off at the shop while my car just sits there. i have searched and cannot find them.
Really, its just 14 bolts. ITs pretty simple. Raise the car and let the rearend hang. Place a floorjack underneath the pumpkin and lift and lower as needed to take the weight off the bolts. Undo the bolts for the shocks first to get the rear to lower even more. Then undo the 2 bolts per side to take off the sway bar. Then undo the bolts for each upper control arm bolt to the housing. This should make the rear low and lax enough to play with. Have a friend step on the drum to push the rearend down, and then pull out the springs. Once they are out, unbolt the driveshaft. Last are the bolts for the lower control arms, 1 each to the housing. Make sure the housing is supported so it doesnt just fall. Somewhere along all this, make sure you undo the brakelines from the housing. Undo the lines from the drums, and then undo the tabs holding the lines down, and then there may be a bolt that holds the junction box to the pumpkin. Just let the lines lay there after you pull the housing out. This job is easy enough to do by yourself but a friend really helps. when the rearend is hanging, the springs become loose enough that they are not a safety issue. In fact, when you go to put everything together you can just slide them back in without a spring compresser. I just swapped rearends like 10 days ago so its still pretty fresh to me. If your any kind of mechanic the rest should come to you, but thats pretty much all it takes. Youll definitely need a floor jack, and air tools really help. And just take out the housing bolts for the control arms, no need to completely remove them. Although now is a great time to upgrade those.
Smock pretty much nailed it but I'll add a couple of things.
Before you torque any bolts make sure that the axle is in the normal ride postion or your rubber bushings will be preloaded in an incorrect postion and bound up. I jack mine up so the weight is all off the jackstands and call that normal ride position.
I didn't take the springs out when I changed mine, they just stayed in the control arms.
If you take the brake backing plates off the axle you can leave all the lines hooked up. I wired them up to the bottom of the car to keep them out of the way.
If you need torque specs PM me and I'll look them up in my manual.
It helps to drain the lube first. It will keep you from making a mess when you move the axle around. Then you can remove the axles and the brake backing plates as I said above.
You may have trouble getting the bolts out of the lower control arms if the car has been in salt. I used lots of Pblaster and an impact wrench.
hes not messing with the rearend though. Hes just taking it to a shop to have them do it. Its best to leave the insides alone or you'll have a nice hazardous waste mess to clean up that the shop could have done for you. Most likely, if you unbolt the rearend, the springs will fall out since they arent bolted to anything, and the lower control arm has to be pulled down and out of the way. Either way, the point is, dont worry about them flying out and killing you since they arent loaded at all.