According to 'The Book' the rear axle must be take apart to avoid damage during welding. Once apart the point where the axle mounts onto the wishbones need to be cut off.
What I can't find out is if I need to cut off the mounts for the roll bar. Any advice?

I got to this stage last weekend. Stripped the rear brakes and cleaned/painted the drums, I was gonna grind the axle brackets off too but wasn't sure what was needed and what wasn't. When I got home I checked "the book" and the pictures in there show a clean axle with only the new brackets in sight. This weekend I'm gonna grind the lot off

Hey Guys
That's the way to do it!
Chris

yep, take the lot off, saves ounce's ant there what counts

Cut everything off for a clean axle, APART from the little tab where the flexible brake hose meets the brake pipes on the axle.

Never mind losing the weight - the unwanted brackets will get in the way! There's not a lot of spare room when you consider where the panhard rod goes.

Now is also a good time to consider where your handbrake is going to go. In the original position the drum levers go below the chassis tube when in the lowest position. I had to rotate the backing plates by around 30 degrees to ensure that the h/brake cable didn't foul the chassis. I turned them until the brake levers were horizontal, drilled 4 new holes and bolted them up.

Guess who didn't work this out until he'd finished the axle, painted it up really nicely and tried it in the chassis? Right first time!

On this subject, I've been advised there's no point stripping down the axle to weld the brackets on. What does everyone else think of this?

Chris

There are a few benefits, ie:

1) Easier to handle due to being much lighter
2) Able to remove back plates for cleaning

Down side seems to be time and the cost of extra gaskets / oil

let oil out.......removed all unwanted crap........welded new brackets on......re_filled with oil.....no leaks, think its a bit of a back covering excersise.......ie....well i told u to strip it ?