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Just a quick followup now that I'm done.
I managed to do the job without removing the entire rear end, but doing it that way is a significant departure from the FSM and what others have done.
Yes, the spring must be compressed and removed. There's only three attachment points for the trailing arm -- the shock (which doubles as one of the arm stops) and the two bushing attachments -- and both bushings have to be disconnected simultaneously to do the job. Even if you don't remove the trailing arm from the half axels, you end up with it attached only by the spring. No matter how you figure it, that much force with only one attachment point is extremely dangerous.
I'll do a complete writeup soon, but briefly, I removed the spring, propped the arm up on some blocks to prevent from hyperextending or hyperbending the half axel joints, then removed the bushing bolts and swung the arm around for access to the bushings. A threaded rod, a pile of washers, some nuts (left over from an earlier subframe bushing R&R) and a 2" PVS fitting made quick work of the bushing R&R. Then reassemble. Once I figured out what to do, the second side took a (whole) day start to finish.
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