[R0oster31]

As you take the bolts out the transmission and engine may want to separate, this is fine , just watch the crack to see whether you need to raise or lower the transmission or engine jack to keep it even. You want to pull the transmission straight out, so if you see the top of the crack spread wider than the bottom you either need to raise the transmission jack or lower the one supporting the engine. If the bottom is wider it is just the opposite. Once you have it all unbolted you can pull the transmission away from the engine. Remember to watch that shift tower as that will be where it wants to hit. Once you can see the end of the shaft inside the bell housing and it will clear the clutch you can lower the transmission. Now if you decide you don’t want to lift the truck really high and get it out with a creeper or some other low profile rolling thing, here is what I did.
I got it off the transmission jack by running an iron bar under the back and using a scissors jack in the front to lift it off of the transmission jack. If you use a method similar to this be careful when you are letting the back down so you don’t tip the scissors jack over. I just used a bar that was about as wide as the truck and blocked it on both sides in the back. When I wanted to lower it I just stuck a smaller bar inside that was about 4 feet long and lifted it up just enough to take the pressure off to get a block out. I went down about 2 inches at a time just lifting it down in the back. I just lifted in the back and didn’t use jacks because I didn’t have 3 scissors jacks and hydraulic jacks were too tall.
Now that you have the transmission out you can begin work on it. The bell housing won’t pull off the front; you have to start from the back. I stood the transmission up on the bell housing end using 2 2X6 to keep it from resting on the shaft and a cherry picker to do all the lifting. Once you have it stood on end you are ready to start taking stuff apart. I removed the PTO covers so I could see in, but you could leave them on and just remember to put sealant on the bolt you took out to drain the system.


The first thing you will have to take off is the transfer case, this isn’t too heavy (80-100 lbs) so you can either unbolt it and lift it by hand or use the cherry picker. If you decide to just lift it off it may be easier to do it in the horizontal position.

The next thing you have to do is get the adapter to the transfer case off. Unbolt it (15 mm 35 ft lbs) and then use a puller to pull the case off using the shaft to push against.

Now you can finally see some those gears you wanted to play with, not to late to turn back. If you still want to continue, lift off the loose gears making sure to keep the appropriate spacers and shims with each piece. I recommend setting them somewhere where they won’t get bumped and in the order you took them off so it is easy to get them back in the right order, also taking a few pics of your own can’t hurt.

Once you have all the loose pieces picked up, you need to set the transmission back horizontally so you can work inside the bell housing. There you will see the heads of the bolts that hold it to the transmission, remove these. I removed the center cover first, but that can wait until you set the tolerances.