Diff and drive shafts back in

Well after yesterdays blog update, I managed to finish the car. lets just say, its one job I hope I don't have to do for a VERY long time.

Totally time therefore to drop a fuel tank out of an STi....about 16 hrs on an average of 4 hardcore hours per day.

If you don't have the luxury of a professional car hoist, like in most garages, the one item I seriously recommend is a floor transmission jack, like this one:

I basically used this to take the weight of the diff and subframe then support the hubs with two regular jacks. 

Basically, there are few a ways to to do the job, but my processes is as follows:

1. Jack the car up and use 4 high axle stands.
2. Disconnect the battery. 
3. Drain the fuel tank. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Apart from the obvious safety factor of working on the fuel system, it would amaze you how heavy this is with £10 of fuel in it!! (A quarter tank)
4. Remove the exhaust from the CAT back.
5. Start unplugging the fuel pump wiring inside the the rear passenger compartment and also all wiring leading to the access ports on top of the tank.
6. Remove the wheels.
7. Disconnect the ABS sensor and also the support bar that supports the wire along the subframe. 
8. Disconnect the brake line and clamp it, from the caliber. 
9. Remove the anti-sway bar and let it drop down. 
10. Take the weight of the hub using a jack. Repeat on other rear side.
11. Disconnect diff temperature sensor and earth, as well as there is one more sensor on the drivers side rear, near the diff sensor.....not sure what it is but disconnect it!
12. Remove the clamps that hold the handbrake cable to the car chassis.
13. Apply handbrake then get under car and mark using paint pen, a mark on the drive shaft. 
14. Remove the drive shaft protection plate and slacken the first two bolts. 
15. Get up and remove handbrake, then go back under car and turn drive shaft to expose the next two bolts. 
16. Get up, re-apply handbrake and get under car again....slacken two remaining bolts.
17. Give the shaft a wiggle and it will lower, take the weight with a bottle jack to hold the drive shaft so it doesn't just hang there with the weight on the forward section.
18. Remove the two bolts holding the hubs to the suspension arms. 
19. Now, double check that the hubs and diff are supported well with the floor jacks, the start removing the 4 bolts holding the rear diff carrier. 
20. Also, the bars that run forward from the suspension arms that bolts to the chassis also need to be un-bolted. 
21. I found it safest to slacken all bolts but DONT remove them until you know for sure you can wiggle the whole subframe and diff.
22. Remove all bolts if happy!
23. Lower the diff and jacks supporting the hubs slowly in turn until the entire subframe and diff are on the ground. 
24. Then take either the two jacks you are using, or two extra axle stands, and put them under the fuel tank. 
25. Mark the fuel lines using different colour tapes, then disconnect the fuel lines from the passenger side rear. If your under the car, be careful, the fuel can spurt out and you don't want to be under it!
26. Use a screwdriver and remove the jubilie clamp and pull of the rubber pipe on the rear of the tank that comes from the filler cap.
27. Remove the other fuel pipe beside the filler pipe. There is also a small pipe to disconnect that runs to the rear as well.
28. Slowly remove the 4 bolts that hold the fuel tank straps and the tank will slowly slide out. 
29. The tank will then rest on the top of the subframe. Its up to you if you want to remove one suspension arm on whatever side you have space to work. I found that I could use a spare jack and raise the car further, then remove the drivers side rear axle stand and wiggle the fuel tank out. 
30. THIS WAS TOUGH.
31. Once out, remove the fuel pump and level sensor and I decided to use my current hoses on the old tank and fit them to the new tank. I blew them through with compressed air just to make sure no dirt was there. 

Fitting is the reverse, on slower, heavier and more stressful! Its hard to describe here, but mainly gravity is your friend, until you try to re-fit the tank.

I found that the minimum I needed was the floor jack for the diff, two GOOD trolley jacks, 2 spare axle stands....(4 for the car and 2) for the tank and various load bearing options during the job. A spare bottle jack and scissor jack came in useful too. 

If I have forgotten anything, sorry.....but thats the basics of the job. I did the write up after a cheeky vodka as I didn't have time to take pics/make a video during the job, so I tried my best to review the process and make it coherent