'91 4WD Tracker transmission

[killermrob83]

I am pulling the transmission to replace a leaking front seal and am running into some difficulties. I had a hard time removing the driveplate to torque converter bolts (3 of them) because someone with poor mechanical abilities rounded off the heads. Wound up purchasing a set of impact grade extractors from sears for 60 bucks that took care of the problem. Now I'm having trouble with the (2) 17mm engine to transmission housing extension bolts. The problem is that the clearance is so minimal that the only tool I can get in there is a box end wrench, but then I only have about 30 degrees of rotation available, and so far I haven't even been able to break them free. Not to mention the fact that the bonehead who rounded off the driveplate bolts also buggered up one of these, too! A friend of mine told me that it's alot easier to pull the engine and tranny as one and then deal with the tranny from there, but I'm not so sure that he knows what he's talking about. Does anyone have any experience with pulling an automatic transmission out of one of these? Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated!