first time rear end swap

Well shoot, I had a long post going about my plan and how it went today, but then I clicked "go advanced" and I lost it. Short version is, my son and I went to the hobby shop and I'm glad we did even though the car is staying there overnight and it's 4$/hour, not $4/day as I thought. For us, it was worth a lot having the mechanic there to help out and all the extra tools I wouldn't have had at home, not to mention the lift. After 7 hours of work we have the front mounting brackets started with the new springs on and the new rear loosely U-bolted to the springs. All that's left is to get the rear shackles mounted, tighten the U-bolts, install the new driveshaft, new shocks and brakes, and take her for a test drive. I'm hoping the install will go quicker than the removal now that we know what's what, but since it's father-son time I don't mind if it takes a while...as long as we eventually get to drive the Dart out of there.

One thing I didn't realize is that the spring mounts and shackles would have to be removed from the car frame. The bolts were installed so that they can't come out unless the whole mount is removed. I assume that's a safety feature, but it made more work than I planned on.

Also, thanks to 67Dart273 for the great tip on plugging the brake lines. Too bad the parts shop only had one inverted flare fitting cap. I plugged the other side with a bolt, but it dripped all day.

And thanks to bcschief who posted the tip to use a box wrench to squeeze the parking brake cable tabs to get the cable out of the backing plate. I think 14mm was the size that worked for me. Easy as pie!