Changed axle half-shafts on 1983 240D-my story.
 

My car had the symptoms of failing half shaft(s). Horrible clunking/rattling noise after a period of driving. After inspection revealed a torn boot I bought reman parts (both sides) and sought out a friend with a lift and did the deed last Saturday.
For whatever reason, my Haynes manual said to remove and suspend the brake calipers. I did not need to do this. It also said to support the final drive housing when removing the back cover of the housing. This was probably not necessary but I used a transmission jack and it sure made it easier to rebolt the final-drive carrier to the underside of the car. I did not replace any of the seals-hope I don't regret it later.
Total time spent was around 2 hours and much of this time was spent searching for tools (it was in another man's shop). I'm confident that I could do it in an hour if I had all the tools handy. Of course an air impact gun and a lift made it much easier.
The next thing is to replace the danged plastic sway-bar links on the rear. What were they thinking?