Chris....I too have never heard of or had to do this before either. I was weirded out by the manual saying that was the procedure. That's the whole reason I posted this thread was to see if anyone had tried something different that worked. Don't worry about the ball busting, I have thick skin. LOL. I live in Florida so we don't have rusting issues like northern states and I still broke one bolt off which I'm not even going to worry about. 2 door Blazers have 4 body bolts and 4 doors have 5, so I'm just not going to worry about the 5th one. I can't see my body flying off the truck going down the Highway.

04CVLXsport....You make a good point. I had the engine tilted so far back the distributer on my truck was hitting the firewall and I was concerned about breaking it. I almost decided to pull it and continue tilting the engine back but that's when I said the heck with this and decided to do what the manual and others said to do, lift the body. I gotta say this is the strangest tranny I've ever pulled and I've pulled a few in my day. I just wonder what it's gonna be like putting it back in.

Thanks for all the input from everyone. You guys ROCK! This is the best forum ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The hardest part about putting it in is aligment. You must align the tranny and engine, if the engine is tillled so must the tranny. I used a floor jack with blocks of wood and balance the tranny on it. I had my son work the jack very slowly while I guide the tranny in place.

I typically put the front tires on ramps and jack up the rear of the truck and set the rear axle on jack stands, keeping the truck level. Put a block of wood under the oil pan and put a jack stand under it to support the engine, then slide the tranny in place. Much easier.

 

Thanks for the tips and posts Hanr3!

 

post up if you have any questions.

your welcome.

 

When I replaced my engine by myself I left the tranny in place. In order to make it eaiser to line up the bell housing to the engine I got 3 or 4 extra long bolts from NAPA to use as jacking bolts. This helped me to line it up start bolting it in and then install some of the factoryl bolts when the engine and trans are close together, then remove the jacking bolts and install the remaining factory bolts. I did this solo and it really made it easy to line it all up.

 

I have been working on my 91 S10 4.3 and have a haynes manual saying the same thing, that i need to lift the body from the mounts. I have had several ppl tell me this is not true. As i read in ur post the dropping of the crossmember should allow the clearance needed to access the top bolts yet i still do not have room to move my ratchet even a click. I have yet to remove the Y pipe do to the fact the manifold bolts are the factory bolts even after 2 days of penetrating oils, 1 being zepreserve an industrial penetrant and the other, everyones fav PB Blaster! Hopefully we can get an answer that will remedy this prob, its been a long time waitin to get this clutch in!!! and Thank You for ur thread because i was begining to think i was just a complete moron that couldnt do it, and could just crank a wrench, brake bolts and be completly livid at the xtra wrk i cause myself, and had no idea where to begin to get help!!! lol

 

are you using the extensions mentioned in my previous posts?

i had the same 5 spped in my '92 Jimmy, and the best way i found in taking out the trans each time (yes i did it quite a few times) was with roughly 30 inches of extensions.

this made the ratchet sit behind the trans (t-case is already off) giving you plenty of room to crank that ratchet.

and if you haven't removed the t-case yet, you'll have to. trust me, i've been there. many times.

 

you can try to raise the body and support it on 2x4's between the body and the frame instead of on jack stands from the floor. i have done this in a chevy dealer years ago. you can also bend the pinch weld near the offending bolt with a long bar and a b.f.h. in either case you do need to lower the rear of the trans to access the bolts on the top. hope this helps