Chris and I began the transmission swap this morning. We went right by the book……. disconnected the shifter linkage, rear tranny mounting plate, and speedo cable. Jacked up the rear and put the jack stands just aft of the leaf spring mounts so the rear axle was free to dangle with no weight on it. Removed the flywheel cover and the four main transmission bolts. Pulled the round ball joint sleeve as far back as it could go, then as I held up the torque tube Chris pulled the tranny away from the bellhousing. We could never get it past the end of the torque tube. So, we tried pulling the U-joint out of the torque tube so we could get it just 1/2” higher. No luck! We took a breather and went for a bite of lunch and decided that we might get the torque tube just a bit higher if we removed the access door in the floor. It looked like it had been replaced with sheet metal in years past by the PO, and the small Phillip screws were impossible to remove, and cutting out the floor panel would be my only option, so I didn’t. We attempted to remove the rear transmission support beam with a 4 lb. BFH but we stopped, believing we’d have bloody hell knocking it back in place and aligned correctly in order to install the 6 mounting bolts. It was wedged between the rails really tight. Chris packed up and left, and I put all the tools away. We thought we’d knock out the job in a few hours and I’d be back on the road, but it didn’t happen.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again??”
