Alrighty...finally finished up the transmission fluid and filter change tonight on the 2007 Yukon Denali.
Hardest part of it all was removing the filter gasket. Definitely will be using the special puller next time. It was in there tight!
Here’s some general notes that might help someone: after sucking as much fluid as possible from methods above I then slightly lowered the pan enough to put the vacuum tube inside and sucked up as much fluid as possible before dropping the pan. I then used a 30” Tekton pry bar and a floor Jack to lower the exhaust...
Major flexing, but did the job...
I was then able to remove the pan without spilling fluid all over the floor. Here’s the fluid that was left after all the sucking (I must have had the vacuum line on the shallow part).
Cleaned both mating surfaces and the pan well (I had to use 1500 grit sandpaper in a few isolated areas as there was some rust buildup). Good as new!
OEM filter and gasket part number is GM 24236517
I used RPT Shift Pro Filter and Gasket part number 997709 and it matched OEM perfectly.