355 gearbox removal help

Hey everyone-well the latest drama with my 96 355gts is a sheered/broken propeller shaft. When I broke down I thought I had just lost a t/o bearing or clutch but after pulling open the "pumpkin" found the tip of the propeller shaft in the removed half of the cover and the rest of the shaft still where it should be. Aside from a ton of grease in the housing (daniel from ricambi theorizes it is flywheel grease) there really doesn't seem to be any other damage. Clutch was recently done and all looks fine on that front (t/o, pressure plate, etc) but turns out (from what I have been able to find out so far) that the shaft has to be removed from the engine side. I have looked and looked for a thread on how to do this without screwing anything up (never having worked on f-cars before) without any luck. Can someone please give me some advice on how hard this is to do and any time saving/money saving tricks for the job. Also how heavy the gearbox is so I know what to expect when pulling it. It appears (from my searching fchat) that this isn't common but does occassionally happen because I found old threads with pics that show the shaft sheered EXACTLY where mine is (right at the channel for the 3rd/rearmost triple seal). Unfortunately the thread didnt have instructions on how to remove the gearbox. It's a manual (did they even have f1 355 in 96??) and I'm hoping it's straight forward. Also, the new shaft is over $4,000...no, not a typo. I am seriously wondering if I can't just take the old one to a good machine shop and have one custom made for less than that. Any leads on fcar salvage yards that might have one would be great too if you have them. I'm currently about 2 hours from the nearest fcar mechanic shop and am kind of on my own for this. Thanks in advance for any help you give me.

 

thank you all for the replies/advice/resources. Not going to get a chance to deal with car until the weekend and will post some pics/updates when I have something to report.

 

Ok, will post the pics I took today after I clean up/give up for the dayy but this is the progress report on the whole broken shaft mystery (pics will help explain but for now this will have to do). if you recall, i broke down orignally and thought that I had just broke a t/o bearing or had other clutch issues. took off the pumpkin and found a) the entire insides of the pumpkin covered in a silvery grey gooey mess of some sort of grease and b) the drive shaft (aka propeller shaft per diagrams) was sheered clean off. so clean that I didnt even notice it was broken off at first. it sheered exactly at the rearmost triple channel seal channel. got another shaft, pulled the gearbox, put in the new shaft was moving the flywheel around and noticed that one of the screws on on the back of the flywheel assembly was missing. I rotated the flywheel around and heard a distinctive clinking sound like a small piece of metal inside the flywheel between the housing assembly and the disk . i searched the 'goo' in the pumpkin/cover and sure enough found the other half of a broken screw. apparently it had gotten sheered off somehow and the bottom 1/4 of the bolt is still clinking around inside the flywheel assembly. SO- can someone PLEASE tell me if the flywheel assembly comes apart (because ive removed every fastener on the damn thing ( star headed, bolts..even what appear to be plugs for screws to push out the disk <just guessing on that/their purpose>.you name it, I've undone it) and nothing comes apart to allow me to take apart the flywheel to get inside and remove the broken part of bolt.
Can someone PLEASE tell me who this all comes apart and if so....HOW?

REALLY appreciate any help her. At a total standstill until I can get that damn bolt part out of the flywheel. I think the grey goo might be flywheel grease...but having only been inside the gearbox once (this time), i have no idea. if it is flywheel grease, where do i put it when i replace it?

Nowhere near a place that works on fcars (3 hr drive one way) so Im on my own. all help is appreciated. rearing to get this girl back on the road asap! thanks in advance!