failure of passenger side transbushing for half-shaft

[96-tx-dx]

Well, almost 3 years ago (see http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...d.php?p=159454 - I did not know it had been that long), I noticed a vibration on the Ae102 (96-dx-Auto-1.8) that belongs to my mother. It only had about 58K miles. The inner CV on the passengerside (the LONG halfshaft), had lost all the grease and either caused the inner bushing to wallow out (wear out) and only make the vibration worse. Before I replaced the half shaft, I took ot to tge local toyota dealer and the mechanic I talked to said there was no way to just replace the bushing for the trans and it would be 3K for a new trans. He suggested just replacing the halfshaft and see how long it goes.

Well, its been maybe 8K miles and it has only a slight vibration but a kind of rattling noise that is the transbushing which now has quite a bit of slop/play. But, it is still not leaking. It is all one sump for the differential and the autotrans. Any ideas how I can just replace the bushing by splitting the case at the differential? Or something not much more significant than that?


edit - I guess there is nothing new in this area ?