I'm up in the air on replacing the clutch on my 01 HO myself. I have done plenty of clutches before (most recently on my dakota and a 6 speed swap on my olds) but there is one thing I experienced in the dakota and I'm reading I may have this issue with the ram too. Do I really need a portapower to spread the frame rails for the trans x-member? In the dakota I jacked the trans up, beat the x-member up and then back and eventually there was a spot wide enough to slide it out.

Thanks guys!

 

If you have a tall pipe screw stand, you can just pull it out of the stand and stick it in a long enough pipe. Then you just screw it out to separate them. Works just as good

 

No, you don't. Up and back and it should drop out.