the release lever is what your slave cylinder rod pushes that goes through the bell housing on the drivers side and slides the throwout bearing. definitely replace the release lever. also inspect the cone that the throwout bearing rides on to make sure the throwout bearing slides smoothly. make sure to grease the cone and throwout bearing well. get the flywheel resurfaced and watch out b/c the flywheel is very heavy when your under the truck.
Definetly take the shifter stub out of the tranny. makes things much easier on you. it has 4 bolts that hold it in. take out the 4 bolts and give it a good little tug and the shifter ball will pop out and you can cover the top with a rag and tape or whatever you choose.
for now you can take out the slave cylinder(twists out of the mounting bracket on driver side bell housing), disconnect the cat pipe to give yourself a little more room, take out the driveshaft which has 4 T45 torx bolts IIRC at each u-joint holding it in and then 2 bolts for the carrier bearing. loosen the top bolts of the crossmember where it bolts to the top of the frame rail(no need to take out completely, just loosen so you can move it enough to get the bottom of the crossmember out when you unbolt it). no you can go ahead and take out the 2 top tranny bolts since the crossmember is still holding the tranny up and the 2 top bolts are the hardest and take the longest to get out. you may find them easier to get out from inside the cab through the shifter hole.
When you put the clutch in you don't want anything on the flywheel, clutch disc, or pressure plate surface so clean it all very well with carb cleaner as you put it in. put in the flywheel then clean the surface, before you put in the clutch plate clean each side well and only handle it by touching the inner hub of the disc, put in the clutch disc with clutch alignment tool then clean the surface of the pressure plate that would touch the clutch well and put in the pressure plate, bolt the pressure plate down and take out the clutch alignment tool. put the throwout bearing on the bearing retainer(the cone on the shaft of the tranny) with grease to make sure it slides easily and attach the release lever to the throwout bearing and the ball on the bell housing. now your ready to wrestle that tranny back in the truck.
i would/did change the tranny fluid to amsoil synthetic atf. now after this last clutch swap i am now using royal purple max atf. both are good for these transmissions. hope this helps!!!
Went with a Valair stock replacement.
