Just sharing my experience with my transmission change on my 2002 silverado z71. So i woke up this morning eager to start working on my truck. I went got the parts and drained the tranny fluid and then came the problems. I couldn't for the love of god get the pan off. i tried everything and ended up with a half unstuck pan. I decided to deal with it. Then with the tranny filter, the little seal on the top was still stuck inside the tranny. tried every which and way until i broke something soft right by the hole. so i gave up and just left the seal inside and took the new one off the new filter and poped it in. Last was the gasket. Holy hell it was a tight squeeze on the far right hand corner of the pan. I couldn't get the seal all the way around. took me a little half an hour of cursing and bleeding until finally got it all the way around the pan and closed everything up and filled it back up. finally drove it and was warm for the first time this morning. it shifted alot better than before and wasn't slipping as much. overall happy with the results. i only wonder what that little piece i broke was for... didn't seem too important