I've gone this far, so I decided to go ahead and pull the whole rear axle. Only real plroblem was with a steel brake line that wouldn't seperate from the hose on the left side (next to the electric fule pump) and I finally had to cut the line.

It's on the floor. Now to decide to try to rebuild it myself or exchange it? I've found a couple of pullouts, but question the sanity of this. With several 230 SL owners unsatisfied with the standard ratio, I'm wondering if anyone has a (4.09?) rear axle that was good, but exchanged for a lower ratio? If interested contact me ASAP.