>A friend
>has a hydraulic lift so I can blow as much time as I want inspecting and
>could even run it in the air looking and listening to driveline parts.

This is dangerous, besides the obvious possibility of it falling off, the 
tires could come off the wheels at a relatively low speed, you know the g 
forces pulling it off (out from the wheel), i saw something about this on 
the discovery channel, be careful..