Hello,
I plan to replace the trailing arm bushings on my 240. I have been through the Haynes manual, read up on the homebrew bushing removal tool etc.
The Haynes manual says to raise the rear end, place jack-stands, remove rear wheels, POSITION FLOOR JACK UNDER DIFFERENTIAL AND RAISE JUST ENOUGH TO TAKE WEIGHT OFF AXLE, and then remove stablizer bolts, shock absorber lower bolt, remove nut from lower spring seat, then I lower the rear axle and remove the springs.

Questions
1) how do I know when I have the taken the weight off the axle. What do I look for?
2) what if I don't raise the axle and just attempt to remove the bolts ? what happens ? I can't understand the part about "unloading" the shock absorber.
3) Once I have the springs out, I guess I don't need the axle raised anymore ? or should I still have it to keep the weight off the axle?
4) Read somewhere about removing each spring at a time (not in brickboard, but elsewhere) Any thruths to this or I can just work on getting both trailing arms out in one shot.

Thanks very much in advance.

regards
zakir