urgent rear diff question

[323ian]

After wrestling the rear diff of my S12 today i really need to know if the driveshafts can be pulled out from the diff or do they have to stay in it?
They seem fairly solid to me??

I will be getting it welded solid but dont really want to take it with the shafts hanging out of it??

It was a bastard to take out also as i un did all the CV bolts from inside the rear hubs and then pulled the whole diff and shafts unit towards the rear of the car to pull it out, does anyone have a better way of doing it?
I did not fancy dropping the whole of the subframe off the car.

Cheers.