I would do the watts last, as it has a lot of play available. Get the links in first, probably top then bottom. Then get the watts on. Then the springs. Then the sway bar and hook up brake stuff.

 

Yeah, I have replaced rear end on previous FBs and just could get into the groove again. I must have ate a bowl of Post Memory Lapse with Whole Grains yesterday morning.

 

Confirming that doing the upper links first make for a pleasant experience.

 

Thanks for the post, y'all. I have a GS - GSL axle swap in my near future.

 

As stated above, and while you have the springs out, remove the 14mm bolt which holds the Bump Stops in place (up the middle) and if the car has been lowered - or even not - cut the Bump Stops by about 1/2-3/4" on each side. With a lowered car, this will restore suspension travel and prevent driving around with abrupt bounce and rebound off of the Bump Stops. Easy to do while the springs and everything are out. Springs go in last, and can be accomplished by seating the top (new rubber spring bushings, I hope...), and then using a breaker bar on the bottom to seat the spring in the lower perch.

A few months back, I swapped in new Upper & Lower Links & Watts stuff, which restored a lot of the factory flexibility in the rear end. The 230k mile originals had broken rubber bushings but otherwise looked pretty good. I did NOT replace any bushings with poly, as the going wisdom says that's too stiff on the back of an FB.

 

I did poly on the rear swaybar and the watts but didn't touch the links. Works fine for me. Cutting the bump stops is a must when lowering even 1/2 in.