Just doing a look-over on the procedure before I dig in tomorrow... and is this accurate? My chilton'* says that you need a slide hammer to pull the halfshafts on a 92-99? Is that just to overcome the retaining clip on the end of the halfshaft? Anyone here who'* done it in the past, I'd love to hear if you needed this or not...

Good news is that if you need a slide hammer, you can actually buy one at Harbor Freight for an extremely fair price. That is, if you have Harbor Freight up in your area. If not, a parts store should be able to loan you a decent one for next to nothing.

Yeah, I've got one a few minutes away... they provided me with the engine hoist and transmission adaptor for my 3 1/2 ton jack but 16 hours ago...

My neighbor has the 13 lb slide kit, but none of the adaptors really look like they'd grab well on the side of the halfshaft. I guess I'll just give it a go and see what happens...

You don't need a slide hammer. Check out the procedure for removing drive axles in techinfo:

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...e=article&k=83

and for removing the engine with the trans....

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...e=article&k=84

or just the trans out the bottom with an engine hanger....

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...e=article&k=82

New question...

Does anyone have specifics on removing the manual shaft switch from the tranny housing? I don't want to break off my plastic connector, but I'm not having any luck getting it to release... and I don't think I want to pull the switch assembly off the trans this early in to the game, and leave a chance of sediment getting in...

Update... we found an exploded diagram that gave us a clue on how to get it off... it was stupid easy...

Update from day/evening #1...

Wasted time sucks. A lot. Half-shafts are removed (needed a slide hammer for the drivers side... that baby was *in there*), and we're ready to pull the tranny out. We spent a lot of time not working today... between double checking information, eating, and making trips to 'yards (finally getting my new sways put on), we wasted most of the day. Tomorrow shoud move a lot better...

Any news here, Matt?

Got held up on the weekend, about halfway into the process (about to remove the tranny). So it all went back together, with 6 qts of tranny fluid replaced. We're giving it another go here in a day or two, and it'* been expanded to a full rebuild, as today I lost 3rd gear for about an hour, and I experienced some slipping (some of the time) in first gear.

Which, needless to say, is a bummer.

Now instead of doing it here at my house, I'm trekking out tonight to theJMFC'* to stay for a few nights until this is complete (don't feel comfy trying to remove the trans alone).

On the plus side, I've now got 5 days (and tonight) to get this wrapped up, so it'* a little less of a hectic pace (of course, this time, if I don't get it done, I don't go to work... which is all bad).

Keep the updates coming, man. This thread is of extreme interest to me, and even if it doesn't get much traffic in the next few days, it could prove invaluable to many folks in the long run. Keep plugging away!