[elgyqc]

My last post was a little optimistic when I said I was ready to drop the transmission...
First was the detail of getting the muffler out. After removing the 2 nuts on top of the bracket no matter how I wiggled, pushed or pulled it I could not clear the bumper to get it to come out. Laying on my crawler studying the situation I realised that with the muffler push back as far as possible towards the bumper I could get at the bolts that hold the muffler mounting bracket to the tail end of the transmission, with those 3 bolts out the bracket came out and the muffler followed. A lot easier than removing the bumper.

Second challenge was the drive shafts. Eleven of the drive shaft to transmission flange bolts came out without problems. For the final one no matter what I tried it would not budge. I ended up cutting the head off the offending bolt, but of course the shaft of the bolt prevented the drive shaft from pulling away from the flange... but there was enough free play to pull the shaft and CV jount away from the flange, towards the wheel, giving access to the bolt's shaft. With my skinny vice-grips I was able to turn the shaft (slowly) out of the flange.

The transmission is now on the jack and all the bolts are out and the transmission mounts are off. My initial attempts to pull the transmission back have not been successful and it was getting late and cold so I quit for the day. Tomorrow I will fiddle with the engine and transmission heights and angles to try to get it separated.