Have you removed the tranny crossmember and lowered the back end of the transmission like Q said? If everything is still bolted up you might not be able to get at them. Motor mounts will give some. I'd be more worried about the weight on the exhaust manifolds. There is nothing special about your truck that requires lifting the body off the frame. Ive never heard of/had to do this.

Although , 3/4's of what i work on is 4 wheel drive.

Also when stabbing the transmission back in, jacking up the front of the motor under the oil pan to tilt the engine back helps with getting things lined back up and will give you plenty of room to install the upper bellhousing bolts. Your lucky you dont have a 4 wheel drive, with the torque arms running from the bell housing and bolting to the top of the transfer case. Those are a real b!tch to remove. Even more of a b!tch to put back on.

 

I pulled a trans out of a 4x4 in a junkyard before without jacking the body. It was an 88 TBI and I was able to get the upper bell housing bolts from the engine bay. I just pulled a trans out of a parts truck at home and decided to lift the body. It's a CPI engine and couldn't get them from the engine bay. Not a lot of room to get them so I wanted to try lifting the body. I loosened the shifter linkage, loosened the body bolts all around, jacked up the body with a wooden 2x4 or something to help disperse the load, pulled the bolts out of one side, put in little chunks of 2x4's to provide about 1.5" of lift, then went to the other side did the same thing. You should leave the 2 rear bolts loose but still in.

 

have you even tried to do like we've been suggesting? i know i haven't given my nickel's worth yet, but figured qtip has already said exactly how to do it (a few times in total it's been said).

i've done numerous 1 st gen's & a couple of 2nd gen's, and until i joined this forum, i've never even heard of anyone having an issue with this, let alone lifting the body to get @ the bolts.

and i don't have any 24 or 30" extensions, just a bunch of 6 & 12" ones, which actually give you a little more "flex" to reach around the top of the trans. i've also always just let the trans "hang" from the back of the engine, it's never broke an engine mount before. just be sure to remember to support it when you get down to the last two bolts (that would be one on each side).

 

you want to be careful not to bend the shaft......?????? dude, how the heck are you doing this? unbolt the TC from the flywheel and you have no shaft to worry about. lift the rear of tranny with a floor jack, ditch the crossmember, let down the jack, the motor mounts will support everything just fine, you're not going to break one, if you do then it was about to go anyway and you have more problems going on with your truck than just a tranny.... take that same jack, go to the front, use a shorter 2x4, put it on the jack lift and under the harmonic balancer, lift the front of the motor. there is no reason on gods green earth that you can't get to those bolts after doing all this, shouldn't even have to lift the motor, but im just trying to get it maxed out for you to get to this. upon installation, use a smaller ratchet strap, maybe 2 if you don't have help. run it under your tranny and hook it on your frame rails and start ratcheting to lift the tranny, this will support the tranny and yet they are flexible enough for you to get under it and put it up to the catch pins on the motor block, insert two bolts, line up your TC and bolt that in, then put in the rest of your bolts, tighten, then lower jack with 2x4 and insert jack under tranny, lift, hook up tranny lines before it gets to high, shift linkage can wait if you want, lift more, insert crossmember, tighten everything, insert driveshaft, lower truck, fill with fluid, and away you go!

maybe i should write a service manual too..... LOL

Good luck man!

 

sorry, subscribed now...

 

Just to follow up - After trying to let the transmission hang and jacking up the front of the engine I still had no room to access the upper left bolt to the transmisssion. I ended up doing what the manual suggested, which was to separate the body from the frame, and found it to be a little more work but MUCH less aggravating. The procedure was actually quite simple, you just need 6 jack stands (2 need to be tall) a floor jack and an impact driver to remove the body bolts. I know many of you guys said that this step wasn't needed but in my case it made it so much easier. I guess it was just my particular year and being a four door. I now see why the factory recommeded procedure is to to access these bolts is to seperate the body and frame. Anyone having a really hard time with bolt access should consider this method.

 

Too much extra work when your working flat rate, I just don't get this, On a 2 wheel drive. The 4 doors are actually a little roomier underneath, especially the 2 wheel drive ones. They are kinda hard to get too, but Ive never thought about lifting the body. lol

 

After lifting the body up to pull the trans out of my parts truck, I've been thinking about putting a 1" body lift on my Jimmy. Would just make life a little easier when I go to r&r the trans in it.

 

dude, i had the 5 speed outta my Jimmy 5 times, it's a '92 4 door (see my sig).

did i mention it's a 5 speed? they're a hell of a lot bigger up top than an automatic. and just as heavy when they drop on your chest.

 

I hear you on the body lift Blazin Jason. Two of my friends were stumped as well and they have lots of experience. What type of parts truck did you pull the trans from that you weren't able to get to the upper bolts Blazin Jason? Rather than jacking the body from the frame like you did I jacked up the frame and then placed 4 jack stands at each bolting point with 2X4 blocks just as you did and then lowered the frame after unbolting, then supported the frame. Just that easy, only took 15 to 20 minutes and made the job so much easier. That's the method the Chilton's manual mentioned and is the factory recommened procedure for vehicles with this issue. This way it keeps you from twisting and tweeking the body. Oh, I forgot to mention, only the left side (drivers side) needs lifting in this procedure acccording the the manual and that's only what I did.