All by yourself?? Man, that's gotta hurt when you lay under a big 10 speed and wiggle it back from the engine till it falls on your chest... I think the issue with most of us is that we lack the HD equipment that makes a tranny job on a big truck easier, hence the desire to not have to pull it...
I see I didn't post any update on my trans... It ended up just being a tired 4-5 synchro and 5th gear... No snapring issue. I replaced the mainshaft, 5th gear, and the 4-5 synchro. No issues now, other than it's stiff getting out of 1st and into 2nd, but that's not new.
Did it all from the top, by myself, in about three hours... No big deal, but some massive parts!! Made the NV4500 I rebuilt look like a Jeep trans!!
Thanks go out to M35Tom for helping with parts and advice, and I think I got a 5th gear from Boyce, IIRC. ?? Anyone that needs a mainshaft, I think still have the one I took outl... Ended up replacing it with a new one that had the same "wear" marks as my used shaft... Pretty sure mine was new and the wear marks were machining marks. The output bearing came off the back pretty easily, and went onto the new shaft almost just as easily.
Some pics for your enjoyment... Ok, so I did have a helper!!
(Thanks Dakota!)
C