I would love to hear the details on this.
I know it is very commonly done on F250/350 diesel trucks for service. Would love to know how involved the process is for our trucks.
The process is fairly straight forward if you get the workshop manual for the truck... it spells out every connection, hose, part you have to take off prior to lifting the body off. Frankly, nothing difficult.
Once you do all of that and take out the big body-bolts, things get more intense, especially without a lift. Our approach was to jack each side of the body up 2 inches at a time, alternating left and right, and slowly building up cribbing with 2x4's to support the body. You can jack the body up via the rails on the bottom/side of the body. We lifted the body up about ~3 feet. At this point the body was lifted, but the cribbing was under the body rails. We then built a couple of big/long beams to support the weight of the car between the cribbing towers and spread the cribbing towers apart so we could roll the chassis forward. At that point, the engine/trans/everything was accessible. Putting the body back on was the same process... just make sure the body mount holes line up.
Fun fact: You have to disconnect all of the brake lines, so you end up losing most of the brake fluid. The engine wont start until it senses you pushing on the brake, and pressure in the brake lines. Basically, until you bleed the brakes, the engine wont start and can cause severe anxiety. Ask me how we found that one out...
If someone is actually considering this, please reach out to me. There are a lot of things we learned, etc.
