So, I went ahead and ordered a clutch kit from marlin w/ a resurfaced flywheel and clutch slave. If I get the truck up on my friends lift will I just be able to slide the transmission back on a jack or will I have to take it out completely?

 

disconnect d shafts and take out the shifters and it should slide back just might be tight working inbetween

 

my buddy wants to take it out completely

 

no need. slide it back

 

you can slide it back seems like a tight space to work in though

I R&R clutches in a few short hours typically

all I do is

take off only one side of both DS typically i take off teh front diff flange side and the rear tranfer case side only (match mark them incase you slip them apart)
remove shifters
use a tranny jack or rigged up floor jack to support trans slighty give it upward pressure
support the engine with another jack utilizing the flat beefed up part on the oil pan
remove slave cylinder 2 bolts and wire off to the side
remove starter leaving the eletrical crap hooked up just slide it to the side
depending on your exhast setup you may have to remove the collector to cat pipe (i dont)
take off all bell housing bolts and the (8) x member bolts to frame good luck with the two upper bolts I cut holes in my fire wall and use body plugs to cap it off
pull back on tranny jack and drop entire unit to the ground and slide the junk towards rear of truck

do your clutch work

and reverse the procedure for reassemble

good luck

 

if you slide it back leaving the x member in you may have a rough time getting those tiny 12mm bolts for the transfer mount back in the same spot its easier to take the 8 big bolts out of the frame and jsut move the thing out of the way . I have a tranny jack though so its really a simple procedure to drop it to the ground