Since everyone said it was possible I attempted changing the transfercase without dropping the subframe or removing the cat... For times sake I shouldve dropped the subframe but for ****s and giggles I decided to do it without.

Disconnect rear drive shaft

I removed the CV shaft entirely from the Car without splitting it. The transfer case was bad so no fears of taring the seal...( The shaft was rusted together and would not have came apart in the car anyhow)

I removed the midpipe from the cats to the flex pipe

I removed the rear motor mount and heat shield

Removed the mount from the tcase cat and engine block. To do this I removed all but the top left bolt as there was a notch in the mount. I wrapped a chain around the mount and hammered down on the chain to pop the mount out.

Remove the bolts on the transfer case and pulled it out.

IT TOOK FOREVER!!!!

The tcase cost me $600 bucks and I bought the car for $1500... So I suppose the work was worth it.

 

Nice, how long would it take to do the subframe removal method?

 

Wow !

 

All in all It wold have taken about the same amount of time for me... All hardware in the Northeast is rusted and seized on so I wouldve spent just as much time with a torch removing broken hardware to take the cats off and drop the subframe as without.

Lets put it this way I had to split the half shaft with a sledge hammer while holding it in a vice because it was "rust welded" together...