Hello Peachparts!

I'm continuing to work on resurrecting my 1972 280 SEL; I had the car on the lift to change out the oil in the diff, and I'd thought I'd be thorough and grease all the fittings - where I ran into a problem with the pivot point on the rear axle.

Normally, there's two grease zerks (fittings) so you can lubricate the big 'hinge' that makes up the swing axle assembly. The rearmost one (318) is intact; the front zerk (#320) looks like someone snapped it off.



Is it possible to remove the spring, plus the hydropneumatic compensator, and then raise the swing axle up enough to properly expose the zerk? Or (sigh), does the whole thing have to come off the car?

Many thanks,

-James