Ooof!

Oh and i forgot to mention, i welded a junk flexplate to a junky floor jack and ive been using that as a 0$ tranny jack for the last few months.

Having done this very thing for a living for a couple years, only on trucks, yeah, I can tell you from experience that it's no fun if you can't get a jack under it somehow.

You just haven't experienced all there is in life until you've had to R&R a T-98 Warner in a C-600 Ford cabover pop truck. With the body on. Loaded. And the 8 ton floor jack will juuuust baaarely lift a wheel so you can get it off, to put the tranny under the truck at the axle and drag it forward to the scene of horror. There you get the tranny (90#) and the shift cover reunited...shift cover weighs almost as much as the tranny, about 75#, and hangs way over on the left side of the tranny...and then hump it onto a small floor jack and try your damnedest to get the whole works kinda, sorta balanced, and chain it in place.

Yup, looks square; let's try it, whaddya say? Got it in 4th? Yeah, I think so, but the shifter's so vague, it could be a Democrat President trying to remember what he promised, and to whom. And then you shove it into the splines and try to get it in. All looks both hunky and dory, but it hangs going into the pilot bearing.

Right...siiigh!...yank it back out, check for the burr on the shaft you missed...nuts, no burr. Okay then, is the clutch right? Yup, looks right. Stab the lineup shaft in again, slide it in and out a couple times to make sure the bearing will engage the lineup shaft, and procede with the tranny as before. Make a couple wee adjustments of 'the angle of the dangle' with wedges and shove it forward. Okay!! This time we're within 1/2 inch...we're in the bearing!!! But it goes no further...gloom reigns in the land.

Okaaay then. How about get a couple bolts in to keep it from slipping out, and go to break while this POS sniffs the hole. As it were.

Having had a nice break for a few minutes, we go again. THIS time, the POS tranny has decided that yeah, it'll be okay if it goes all the way into the bearing...just this once, you understand. It's a nice POS after all: it's never done THIS sort of thing before!

This time, I gave the output a twist and shoved, and hey presto! in it goes. Quick tighten the 2 bolts you left to keep it in place and add the others. Half an hour later, the shift linkage is reattached and adjusted, and the owner is called to come get his truck. Long damn day, I'll tell you what! And it's not even noon yet.

I only had to pull a commercial truck tranny on the ground once, but it was no fun..... BUT, im GLAD the body was on because it provided the shade in TX since the truck wouldnt fit under our shop awning..