Start inside the truck. With a Phillips remove the screws holding the shift boot and slide it up.
Remove shifter with 3/4″ or 19mm wrench.
Pop up transfer case shifter boot and remove bolt/s. Pull out rubber inserts in cupholders and remove bolt/s. Remove plastic shroud.
Unbolt shifter boot.
Unbolt shift tower carefully and tape clean rag in hole. If you drop anything into the trany like one of the bolts or a socket it’s all over.
Now it’s time to go under the truck. Unbolt the driveshaft and carrier bearing. Tape the caps of the U-joint together. Do not allow the slip joint by the carrier bearing to come apart. Remove the entire driveshaft as one piece.
Remove front driveshaft,vacum plug,and vent hose.
Pop out rod from transfer case at shifter.
Unbolt clutch slave cylinder.
At the top of the trans on drivers side is a wire loom that crosses over and is held down with a little plastic arrow stuck through a hole. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to pinch the arrowhead together then pull the loom out.
Passenger side same thing.
Remove electrical plug passenger side.
Unbolt vacum hardline from crossmember and move out of way.
Unbolt fuel lines from frame on drivers side by crossmember. Support tranny with a good tranny jack. It weighs well over 300 pounds. Unbolt crossmember and with some big deadblow hammers pound it up being careful not to pinch the fuel lines. Pound it back to those big holes in the frame and it should come out. You can also use a hydraulic jack to spread the frame rails which makes it a lot easier. Use another jack or some blocks to support the front of the engine. Once the weight of the tranny is removed it will fall forward a little making installation a lot harder. Unbolt the tranny from the engine and slide it back then down. Alternate backing out the bolts on the pressure plate a little at a time. Once the pressure is released remove all the bolts leaving the top ones for last and be prepared to play catch with a very heavy piece of metal. The clutch disk will fall out once the pressure plate is removed so watch out for it also. Put some gloves on for the flywheel removal and place something like a sheet of plywood on the floor to protect it when it suddenly pops off smashing your fingers,toes,or whatever else gets in the way. Use locktite on the bolts when reinstalling the flywheel. A new pilot bearing should be used. Once it’s mounted clean off all your greasy fingerprints with solvent. Remove the old throwout bearing. Clean the tranny input shaft and lightly regrease it. Install new throwout bearing.
Install the clutch disk with alignment tool keeping your greasy fingerprints off the friction material.
Install the pressure plate. Do not touch the side facing the clutch disk. Use locktite. Alternately tighten the bolts then remove alignment tool.
Slide the tranny back up in place. Line the input shaft up with the center of the pressure plate and slide the trany forward. Adjust the tranny jack so the gap between the engine and bell housing is the same at the top, bottom, left and right side. Wiggle the tranny in by hand. It may take an hour or it might slide right in on the first try. Make sure never to lower the trany jack and hang all the weight on the input shaft. It will destroy the clutch disk. The last hard part is to pound the crossmember back into place.
[thanks to Mr. 00 and TDR used with permission]