The 4L80E crapped out after 116K of abuse, so I've got a rebuilt one ready to go in. I'm done with finals tommorow and I was planning on installing the tranny on thursday. Never done one on these trucks, but I put a 350/700R4 in a YJ with no issues. My buddy has a shop with a lift, but I cant do it until sunday when he's closed, and my other friend needs me to pull a 9000 pound trailer down to the ranch this weekend, plus I just want my truck fixed(no reverse). So I'm just wondering how bad is it to do without a lift. (keep in mind 2500 so frame hangs lower) The jeep I did on the ground but it had a big lift on it so lots of room. Also, the jeep had tons of space to get to the bellhousing bolts from under the hood. I crawled under the truck and checked everything out for a few minutes and it looks pretty tight in there. I really dont want to spend the extra time pulling the intake off, but I only have 1/2 in. clearance between frame and headers and I dont want to lean the engine/tranny back and squash them, but i dont want to take apart half the exhaust either. Can you get a socket in there with enough extensions and flex deals without tilting the tranny too much or am I gonna have to take my headers/intake off again? Also, do you have to drop the starter to get access to TC bolts?
Thanks for the help.