Hello, all. Finally found the time to drop the axle. Here's a few steps and photos:
1. Make sure you get the jack under the axle before you try to remove the bolts. Don't be cocksure (I have lots of experience, here)--have your penetrating oil handy or you'll probably not get the nuts off. Mine weren't so bad after 30 years, but I still needed my biggest 1/2" breaker bar and about 30" of 2x4 (not a lever, a hammer) to get the first nut movement.
2. Dropped the axle and took some comparative photos--yes, the shock bracket is backwards on the new axle, but I could have done a better job on the drawing. As it turns out, I'm going to cut off the old brackets and re-use them.
3. Why? Because even though Monrow inculdes a new shock mounting stud, it's [IMHO] too short. One photo shows the included hardware, but you can see it's just not what the doctor ordered. Not to mention that in addition to the stud portion being too short, the threaded portion is too long--it would definitely hit the jacking flange. One other thing to note--the hole in the Axis bracket is 1/2", but the non-threaded portion of the stud is 5/8". Not a big deal, but something to make sure you put in your order if you have your own shock mounting studs. (btw, the white stripe behind the bracket on the new axle is a piece of shim from another project, not a Photoshop artifact.)
to be continued...