Update
O-Kay then ! .
As it turned out , it has been raining off and on , on and on , and on.....
Anyways , I managed to get that beastly heavy Muncie SM465 tranny (350 + # !) out without dropping it , then I discovered the diaphragm spring in the clutch cover was bad , it broke and that's what failed the clutch , the fingers are all worn badly too .
The disc looked O.K. but had loose tension springs , the T.O. bearing was noisy & loose , the clutch fork was worn out as was the adjuster pin ~ sheesh

.
I went to Rock Auto and was able to order up everything new in good quality for less than the price of the clutch alone hereabouts .
Since then I have been struggling to work on cleaning it , there's about 1/4" of grease dating back to 1976 on the tranny and all related parts , when I was replacing the exhaust manifold & re - wiring the engine compartment I'd scraped & de greased the engine before repainting the upper 2/3 of it so now I want to clean up the lower part , whew ! what a job , several attacks at it , to - day I was able to paint the bell housing and right side of the block & a little bit of the oil pan , more to go and I want to clean up and overhauls the starter too , get some fresh paint on that too so it'll all look spiffy when it's done .
I found a nifty pilot bearing removal tool I'll write about if it works as described , it looks pretty slick .
The new clutch came with two pilot bearings , I'm going to use the roller typ one as I know and like these from my Foreign car works .
God alone knows how I'll get that tranny back upright and under the truck , I hear tell Harbor Freight has a hydraulic tranny jack cheaply so maybe I'll give that a look , I can give it to my son after the job is done as he's doing side jobs to pay for his recently purchased house , just like I did when he was a child .
I also got a handful of various length bolts & cut the heads off , when I file the sharp edges rounded they'll make good tranny alignment tools , until you've tried this you cannot imagine how much easier it makes clutch work .
I was looking inn the host's OnLine Catalog and found the rubber accordion boot for the clutch rob but
not the boot for the clutch fork , Dorman has long discontinued it , maybe I'll see if the later model one Chevy Duty offers will work , I expect to get my printed catalog next week , I can install the boot anytime later , I'll go nuts thinking about it until I get it done .
That's it for now , typical old truck fiddles , like back when I was in the dealer...