The nut is 41mm or 1 5/8". In this photo I'm indicating the shift fork.


Simply slide it back, and it does two things. 1) it creates clearance to fit a wrench onto the nut (since I don't have a 41mm socket), and 2) it locks all the gears together for the next step.


Next I chalked the case up in my vise and clamped down on the front drive shaft flange.


It turns out that 2:1 gearing is still enough to turn the driveshaft flange in the vise when you put the wrench on the nut, so I slid a rod through a flange hole and up against a cooling fin. Try to get that shaft up into the base of the fin so you don't break it off.


I happened to have this 1 5/8" monster wrench hanging around. If you can have a second person to stand around and support the t-case, it'll alleviate a lot of fears about busting it loose out of the vise and dropping it onto the floor. I didn't have any help, but managed to get the nut loose.


I had a heck of a time focusing properly here, but you can make out that when I hammered that screw driver into the nut peen, it laid the threads over and broke some of them off. This also made it less than smooth when the nut came off, but fortunately the rest of the intact threads kept everything clean.


All the remnants of those damaged threads.