I was told today that the transmission needs to be removed to fix the seal on the side pan. Is this correct? Is there any way to "fenagle" the side pan off without removing the trans?
Thanks in advance for your help.

I think (don't quote me) that you can remove the side pan in the car. [EDITED TO CORRECT BAD ADVICE: There is NOT clearance to remove the pan with the trans in the car] If you do contemplate this, meticulously clean the top of the pan and the trans where it will come apart, before you remove the side pan, then put some sort of dirt shield made from aluminum foil or such above so that dirt will not fall into the transmission while the pan is off.

i had to drop the subframe on the drivers side to clear the fender well when i did mt TCC it can be done but it is a pain

The tranny shop owner who replaced the tranny on my '92 SSE */c said that they need to drop the tranny. He said that to replace the gasket, the TCC solenoid(*), or anything else on the side, they have to drop the tranny.

Can you see if it'* possible to maybe just snug up the bolts on the side pan cover? They might just be loose, and you might do okay just torquing them back to spec.

Tightening the pan worked for me.

That'* what I thought. I had mine regasketed under warranty, and when my extended warranty was out, my dealer noted on a 10-point inspection that my side pan was leaking. I showed them the paperwork from when they regasketed it inside a year before, and they "miraculously" determined that retorquing the bolts and wiping it clean was all that it really needed. That was over 40,000 miles ago and it hasn't leaked since.

You don't have to take the pan all the way out, just pull it back far enough to remove the old gasket, and clean the mating surfaces. You also have to remove the driveshaft also. Unless you want to get crazy and just cut one side of the gasket. Just make sure that the side you cut is the side that is on TOP of the trans. Then you could fanangle the new gasket in.

I had a chance to take a look at the clearance between the pan and the inner fender - there is NOT room to remove the pan without dropping the trans. That'* the bad news. Now for the good news: if you want to do this yourself, I know where you can get an engine hanger in Ames to support the engine so that you can remove half of the subframe and drop the trans out yourself.

ok thanks for all the help. i think i'll just re-torque the bolts and see if that helps.