I'm in the middle of an engine/tranny swap on a 49 now and if theres one thing that I'd rate as the worst part of the job it's having to crawl under that 70 year old beast with all it's accumulated grit and grime to get at those bell housing and rear tranny mounts, plus cleaning the torque tube up enough inorder to slide the slip nut and ball collar back enough to get at the U joint clamp bolts. I studied trying to avoid crawling under but determined I didn't have long enough arms with additional pivot joints, LOL.
re. leaks, like sstock pointed out you may only need to replace the seals on the ball collar, unfortunately thats one of those gotta get under to do it jobs....
I've got tendonitis in both shoulders and some kind of arthritis in my thumbs.
So I know from whence your coming from in having to limit the amount of time one can utilize said appendages in certain endeavors.....
Good luck
Dave
