The transmission tailshaft housing broke where it is bolted to the removable frame rail. I assume I hit something with the low hanging frame rail it is bolted to.

Is this a big deal to change? I have looked up diagrams and they seem pretty basic, like no small parts. A rebuilt housing seems to go for ~130$ with a new seal for where it meets the main body of the tranny.

How difficult is removing the drive shaft from the housing?

 

I just used the vin decoder, here is the hopefully relevant transmission info. I assume there was only one automatic transmission during this year?

 

If it's the very rear, tail shaft housing, it has a handful of bolts.
I found some on on ebay before.

 

Finally got my van back on the road. I had my mechanic put the replacement on. I ended up buying a parts van to take a housing off for 1000$. Amazingly my wife doesn't have an issue with it sitting in our driveway...for now. None of the junkyards had the housing and it is backordered from ford.

At least I have a set of extra wheels now. And I can put the axle on my trailer