Taking the tranny out can be more than a bit easier than putting one back in my experience. Whether you're on a lift or on your back an adjustable tranny lifting fixture is indispensable, because you need the tranny right at the correct angle and height to get it together without a fight. It can be extremely frustrating trying to accomplish this by any other method. You can get a fixture that mounts on a standard floor jack for $40 or less.

I have found that taking some fine emery cloth to the “nose” of the torque converter and to the inside of the hole in the flex plat where it fits is sometimes the difference between it sliding together and a ball breaker getting it to slide together, takes only a couple minutes before hand to quickly knock of any rust or scale that could come between these parts.

Last thing before moving the tranny onto the engine is to double check that the torque converter is correctly situated and seated on the tranny input shaft, is this gets out of whack as you jostle things around getting the tranny into position, when you start pulling the tranny into place onto the engine you can damage the front pump.

There is a plastic plug on the lower driver’s side of the bell housing that you turn and pull out also. This plug extends into the bell housing in front of the torque converter. When you’re pulling a tranny some times the torque converter separates from the tranny input shaft easier than from the flex plate. If this happens as you pull the tranny rearward it will start to come and then the plastic plug will hang it up on the torque converter which is still stuck to the flex plate. If you can loosen the torque converter from the flex plate, not just the six bolts you access from the hole on the oil pan, but actually the torque converter turning freely from the flex plate you can avoid this. It’s just hard to get the nose at the center of the torque converter free from the hole in the flex plate most of the time. This plastic plug helps hold the torque converter from moving forward of the tranny input shaft when installing the tranny.