Have to change Transmission

Well while driving home the other day in my 95' Aurora with 132,000 miles on it the tranny started slippin... so I pulled over to find a puddle of tranny fluid on the ground. So I got the car home and pulled it over my pit to find that the differential came apart and fed through the case and exploded it... so I found one at a junk yard for 500 bucks with me trading mine in... I was wondering if anyone could help me with some helpful tips of removing the tranny from my car and making sure the one I'm going to get is going to be the correct thing for my car. As I understand it there is 2 different gear ratios for the car I imagine b/c of the autobahn package option, which my car is not. So therefore I need the non autobahn package tranny for it to work correctly in my car. Right????

Correct

Would it be easier for me to pull the tranny out with everything left in tact or drop the whole cradle out from under the car?

You have to remove the engine and trans together but to get them out you have to remove the sub frame. It is quite a job. If you don't have access to an engine support that is designed to hold the engine and trans from under the hood you may want to have it done at a shop. I think that Alldata gives about 9 or 10 hours to do it.
Good Luck
Carman999

It won't change anything (except acceleration/gas milage) if you do get the autobahn transmission.
The car won't even know the difference.

are there any other tranny's that will fit my car? like the riviera?

The dealer told me you MUST match the gear ratio with the correct trans otherwise the computer will get confused and cause the car to jerk at crusing speed. I would be careful about which trans I put in this car otherwise you may want to grab the computer if the ratio is different than factory.