I still stand by my way of doing it with a breaker on the floor and rolling the truck!
Yes, I ran a truck shop for 15 years and that was the best and safest way to do it.
As for your delicate gears picture this.
Your driving a semi,80,000lbs gross, your pulling a steep pass, quite a bit of strain coming from that 600HP motor, you get to the top (and check your brakes of course ;]) down you go, you hit the jake switch and maybe the retarder if its a cat and you are now holding that 40 ton's and putting that same pressure ,Where? on the opposite side of those delicate gears.
or
Your driving a big bolt with a vacuum 2 speed, you push the lever to shift down and miss the gear (don't ask) you hit the throttle rev,grind,rev, grind and !BANG! it goes in, 90 times out of a hundred no damage is done to your delicate,weak little gears.
Did I mention this was the safest way to do it??
