Well I got brave and did it myself. It took me awhile and a lot of work but it's done.
Here is some of the things I ran into.
You do have to remove or disconnect most of the suspension components on the drivers side to gain access to the transmission.
Disconnect the intermediate shaft from the steering gear box (this was a lot harder than it sounds because it's really hard to reach.
Remove the half shaft on the drivers side.
Loosen the frame bolts underneath and lower the engine/tranny far enough to gain access to the tranny side cover.
The tranny side cover has to come all the way off because there is a small clip that holds the solenoid in place that you can't reach from the top. Only from the side with needle nose pliers.
The bottom four bolts on the tranny cover are torx. Be careful not to strip them. I stripped one of them and wound up having to cut the head off of it to remove the cover and find a new bolt.
There were several little pieces that had to be removed as well to gain access to certain parts.
If you're going to attempt this yourself, I'd recommend going to
www.alldatadiy.com and registering. I think it costs about $21.00 for a year but it's well worth it. Go to diagrams/exploded view/transmission and scroll down until you see the Case assembly. Click there and it gives step by step (albeit simplified steps) instructions to removing the case.
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.