My advice is, if you haven't bought 6-ton jack stands, do so. You'll be supporting the XJ on nothing but the uniframe, and to get the suspension to hang enough to take apart the front, that'll be around 1.5-2' up in the air. 3-ton stands are just too sketchy for that to be safe.

The hardest part really will be the front axle. You've got to pull the steering, depending on what route you take (disconnecting the adjusting sleeve at the pitman arm would be easiest, versus trying to back out a TRE with a tapered fit), the control arms, shocks and springs, and track bar. Track bar flagged nut seems to give a couple of people hassle. The LCA and UCA bolts may be quite seized. The careful part is to get the springs out before disconnecting any bolts. Supporting the axle instead of letting it hang will make bolt work a lot easier.

The rear is DIRT simple. Remove the driveshaft, disconnect the brake hose, unclip the parking brake cables, two nuts to take off the shocks, undo the U bolts holding the axle to the leaf spring. Done. Don't drop it on your feet lol

Overall the biggest factor is rust. If you live in the Rust Belt be prepared to replace every single fastener you remove. Beware of the studs holding the shocks onto the rear axle, they are known to snap easily. You will need to replace the leaf spring U bolts at the bare minimum.

Not a time saver. To do that, as you need to remove all of the brake hardware to get at the nuts, then you need to straighten the lines out to get the whole assembly off - and once you get all that crap off it'll be left hanging and very likely fatally bend. If you have any rust, the bending is likely to break the lines and make you replace it anyway. Bleeding the brakes is important maintenance, if you haven't flushed it in the last two or three years you need to do it. The only reason I'd consider the method your friend suggests is if everything was brand new Cu-Pro line and you had like $100 of fancy Motul racing brake fluid in there.

Depends, how much you can lift and how well will you drain the axles?

 

I am a scrawny 120lbs and I can move the rear axle around. Some small moving dollies helped me alot. I had to do one side at a tiem (leaned one side up against the XJ, lifted the other side and used a towel to help it slide in). Same for removal, slid it to the edge of the tunk, then lowered one side on the ground, then the other.

They are heavy as **** - no way I could dead-lift one on my own. It was pretty late at night or I would have had a friend come over and help, you could very easily hurt yourself if your not careful.

 

Before I bring them to him I'll drain them, pull all shafts brakes,and steering other than knuckles. At that point I'm thinking I could manage getting them into the back of a suburban, what do you think?



I have one pair of 6 ton stands, should I get another to help even it out?

 

2 pairs of stands would be optimal. You should be able to dead lift them off the ground and get them up into the the back of the 'burban. I lifted my 8.25 out of the back of my jeep when I got it and set it on a set of saw horses, then down onto jackstands once I was able to get a better grip on them.

 

I'm going to leave the backing plates on, is the parking brake a simple disconnect in the drum? It's the only thing in there I've never taken apart.

 

You'll have to get some slack in the cable by loosening the adjuster portion under the frame where it junctions. Then the cable should slide right off the arm, but has a retaining clip part on the cable/backing plate. Take a 1/2" combination wrench, slide the box end over the cable to the clip, press it on, and wiggle it out from the other side. Should pop right out.

 

Or, since the axle's coming off anyway, leave the cable until last. Just roll the axle forward a few inches and there's some slack!

Simple procedure either way