Project: K.I.T.T.: KITT's Rear End: A Documentary #2

After removing the control/trailing arms, we placed the jack underneath the differential to lift it up and take the weight off the shocks.

At this point the only thing holding up the rear axle are the shocks, so it is very wobbly.

Troy asked if we had any kind of ratcheting tie-down to secure the differential housing to the jack. I had a ratcheting tie-down at one time, but it was lost in one of our moves. (I believe it was inherited by the person that rented the Uhaul after we did.)

Sara pointed out that we may not have a ratcheting tie-down any more, but we do have bungee cords. I dug through our bungee cord container until I found the heavy duty black ones.

We wrapped the black bungee cords around the rear axle and secured them to the jack.

Then we unhooked the driver side shock.

Next we unhooked the passenger side shock.

I balanced the rear axle as Troy slowly lowered it down with the jack.

Almost all the way down...

While balancing it, we used the jack to roll the rear end out from underneath the car.

We made it almost all the way out. The axle teetered and almost tipped off the jack, but we caught it in time.

Troy and I set it down here. Troy said it weighs between 150 and 200 pounds.

Next Troy worked on removing the cross bar/upper track bar. Removing this bar did not go so well as the nut was really seized.

Troy quickly figured out it was not going to be easy to remove this bar when the nut snapped off.

The nut.

Troy tried some PB Blaster on the bolt head to see if he could turn it out from the opposite side.

Troy attempted to turn the bolt out but he could not get it to budge.

We brought out the cheater bar to gain more leverage but it still wasn't turning.

Our goal was to drop the gas tank, so Troy thought maybe we could just lower the one side for now and slide the gas tank out. He started with a ratchet but it was slow going.

Troy switched to an impact driver and quickly removed the bolts.

With the bolts out we were able to lower the arm down.

We removed the gas cap and double checked that was all we needed to do to remove the fuel filler neck.

The gas cap is all that secures the fuel filler neck and it is now free to move down and out.

Troy removed the bolts securing the tank straps.

Using his knee as a brace Troy lowered the gas tank down.

Once the tank was lowered we realized there was not as much fuel in it as I had thought there was, so it was not as heavy as we were expecting.

As Troy held the gas tank, I attempted to maneuver the neck down through the opening in the frame.

The problem was not the fuel filler neck getting hung up on the frame. It was the gas tank hitting against the Panhard/track bar. There was just not enough room to get the tank at the necessary angle to free up the fuel filler neck. We are going to need to get that bolt out of the Panhard bar.