it took two of us to carry the bare axle away.. still uncomfortably heavy.. i personaly wouldnt bother stripping the innards out, ive just swapped front axles (a disco front onto my 90) and it was pretty straight forward..
1)unbolted panhard rod from steering box end.
2)unbolted both o/s and n/s radius arm bolts (the big 30mm ones)
3)unbolted both top shock mounts
4)unbolted front prop shaft
5) disconnected both front brake hoses in chasis mounts (left calipers on axle- swap l8r)
6)unbolt steering damper (chasis end)
7) raise front end by a few feet (i used an engine crane on front chasis)
8)recovered both front springs and compressed both shocks
9) freed both radius arms from bushes
and rolled the axle out from under car...
this took bout an hour and half.. ive just rolled new axle under chasis and replaced springs and shocks and connected top strut mounts.. so far no stress.. looks more straight forward than taking halfshaft and diffs apart plus im not sure if you'd have to set the diff backlash up in a new axle casing??