Rear end center section - how difficult to swap out?

[JC6715]

This month's commission check was such that I plan on getting new gears and "posi". I have a '67 289, weiand stealth, 600cfm Holley, headers with aspirations of new heads and a cam. The car is my daily driver and sees little to no track or strip time in it's current form, but I'd like to get to the strip in the future.

My quesiton is if I buy the center section from the link below, how difficult is it to swap out the center section? I am reasonably mechanically inclined and feel up to tackling this...

Any opinions on the link below or if I'm crazy to think I could do the swap myself. Thanks guys! She's coming along nicely with all the help I've gotten here, it's been greatly appreciated.

http://www.andale.com/stores/sf_itemHome.jsp?lid=295048180&cid=10461892&mode=1

:SNSign: =

 

[1320stang]

You'll have to put the car up on jackstands and remove the wheels. You'll have to pull the axles, so if you have a drum rear, you'll pull the drums off, then loosen the 4 nuts near the axles that also hold the backing plate on by turning the axle so the hole in it allows access to the nuts with a socket. You should be able to pull the axles out enough without having to remove the brake lines to the wheel cylinders or the emergency brake lines. At worst, you'd have to remove the brake lines and rebleed the brakes, but I think you can do it without removing them. Remove the ubolts that hold the rear u-joint in place and drop the rear of the shaft without pulling it out of the transmission. You can wrap some masking tape around the end of the u-joint so the caps won't fall off if you'd like. Good time to pull the caps and inspect them anyway. Now you can remove the nuts holding the carrier in the housing. If the carrier has never been removed, there will be some brass washers that sort of dig into the threads on the studs. A small flat bladed screwdriver or a small chisel to cut them will help to remove them. You'll need to put a pan under the third member or you'll end up with smelly rear end grease all over the floor. Once you crack the bottom open, let it sit so all the grease can run out. If you have a problem pulling it out, an axle still may not be pulled out enough. Then it's a matter of cleaning up a bit and reversing the process.

 

[dennis112]

Also make sure you have a fluid filling plug, either on the center section or the housing. All is not lost if you don't have one, either drill one or fill the rear through one of the axle shafts prior to installing the axle.

 

[JC6715]

Alright, I think I may try to attack this one myself... Thanks for the words of wisdom guys. I'll let you know how it turns out.