'85 245 Rear Axle Replacement

[SvenAndOlie]

I'm looking at picking up a 1985 245 Wagon as a project car but it needs a new rear axle... Owner says the axle snapped but the car still runs. I was wondering... how hard is it to replace a rear axle on one of these things, provided I can find one in a junkyard?

I know this forum has slowed down a lot but I figured it was worth a try.

[wizzard_al]

Hardest part will probably be getting the bolts off the axle on both the junk yard car, and yours.

Unbolt: trailing arms (aka lower control arms); upper control arms, panhard rod, driveshaft, emergency brake cables, brake lines. Probably want to use the best set of brakes. 

To find one, go to:

car-part.com

and tell it what you want, I did a quick search and found 4 pages of axles. I used my zip code, but you can find yards all over the country. That was asking for a non LSD (limited slip differential) 3.31 ratio. You can get 3.31, 3.54, 3.91, 4.56 rear end ratios, at least you can ask for those. With or without LSD. Many yards won't bother to unbolt the axle, they just torch the suspension arms. Check with the seller on this.