I pulled a 3.0 V6, transmission and TC as 1 piece out of a Gen II SR a couple years ago. It came out without too much difficulty. Going back in as a 1 piece train was a lot harder. I will mention that I was doing this without a helper. I ended up ripping a wire off the transmission (one of the 4x4 light switches - which you don't have on the Gen I). It's a long drive train and hard to control the weight and balance with all 3 units bolted together. It's easy to drag it out over the radiator support,but way more difficult to muscle the package over the support going back in. If you had a couple helpers it would likely be done more easily. Also I had to let the air out of the front tires to squat the front end in order for my engine crane to be able to get the package high enough to get the TC started going down the firewall tunnel. It can be done but I don't recommend doing it that way at all.

If you are only going to rework the engine, then I vote for only seperating the transmission from the engine in the conventional way, and pulling only the engine. There is less potential for causing other issues. The radiator comes out either way and the engine only method is by far the way to go unless you are inclined to lift the body first. Next time I will lift the body off, but only because I want to do some other work and blast my frame as well!

If you separate the motor from the tranny(auto). Be sure to mark the torque converter & flex plate before dis-assembling ..I understand the pair are balanced & need to be correctly oriented.... Jedi masters ,,,correct me if I am wrong. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />

It never hurts to mark it, but I don't think it's necessary at all. When I build an engine, I balance the flexplate with the crankshaft, harmonic balancer and camshaft sprocket, so the engine rotating assembly is balanced - then I rely on the torque converter to be balanced by the builder or rebuilder. I haven't run into a problem doing it that way.

Frank