ugh.. that wasn't fun. but gotta say, probably the first time being a hybrid helped out. no power steering pump in the way, it slid forward and out in one piece without removing much but some wiring clips and grounds.
it was definitely broken. truck feels significantly smoother. must have been bad since I got it. because know you can't even feel the engine start and stop, before it wasn't bad but sometimes it did make some noise I thought was probably normal.
for anyone doing it, besides the 15mm impact wobbly above, a 28ish inch transmission extension would be very handy working from the top for the frame bolts and thru the fender well for the block bolts. if you haven't seen them, it's a special extension meant to get to the top bolts of a tranny bellhousing. it's 1/2in on the impact end and 3/8 on the socket end, hardened so it doesn't waste you impact power like normal extensions do.
byond that, it's just mostly miserable. took me about 3 hours start to finish.