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A little more information:

- I did not notice the 'stay cable' anywhere, all I saw on that side of the tranny was the clutch linkage.
- In Wes's pictures with all things needed to be removed in red, I also did not notice the breather line, the line near the transfer shift levers. All I saw in that area was the speedo cable line.
- I did leave the transfer connected to the tranny. I did do the aspects of the removal steps excluding actually removing the transfer (Wes' step b) but even if I didn't, all that seems to do is to make it easier to remove from the tranny once its out of the jep. It had nothing to do with removing the tranny as I don't have an overdrive?
- The only thing I removed from the bell housing was that clutch release bearing spring.
- The tranny gears on the main shaft have quite a bit of rust and look like some have been chewed up a bit. Maybe there could be rust on the input shaft that could be blocking the last bit to slide through the retainer? I'll try to upload a picture of the gears.

My original thought was that the rear of the tranny and transfer dropped too low which bound the input shaft in the bearing retainer (I think thats the part in the bell housing I can see the input shaft sliding out of), but once I got it situated to where I can slide the tranny back and forth the 1.5" - 2" with one hand, we started to think there is something else binding or something else needs to be removed.

Brian - I'm assuming that the PO did some tranny/transfer work and didn't connect the breather line back up. The more I'm under the jep, I'm noticing more and more jury-rigged fixes.

And did you remove the clevis pin from the clutch cable where it
attached to the cross tube?

See photos above. Otherwise the ball end of the cable in the clutch
fork in the bell housing will keep you from separating the two.

One other question. Did you remove the crossmember?

Just trying to help.

Don't know if you noticed my previous two posts, you and I made our own posts at the same time.

I ended up removing everything in the clutch linkage from the cross tube to the bell housing. The only things left intact were are the clutch pedal and the cable that runs to the cross tube.

The cross member is still attached to the tranny but all mounting hardware has been removed. While playing with the jack, I can assure you that the cross member isn't hitting anything while I am trying to pull the tranny back.

And thank you for your help, I'm sure once I find out whats binding up I will feel like an idiot so any suggestions will help in the meantime.

I did read that. Was just trying to be clear in my head.

Just checking.
Stay cable? It's connected to the crossmember.
Speedometer cable?
Parking brake cable?

Do you have a fording vent line on the right side from the transfer
case to the air cleaner?

Or the other version where the line runs from the transfer around the back
of the shift tower, then to a tee on the bellhousing, then forward into the engine bay?

Awesome, just making sure.

Stay Cable - There was nothing attached to the cross member other than the tranny/transfer assembly.
Speedo cable - I never did follow it back to the start, but I pulled what I believe to be the speedo cable from the right side of the shifter housing on the transfer. Sorry for not knowing all the proper names yet.
Parking brake - The jep didn't come with a parking brake cable.

For the last bit about the fording vent line, I'm not not too sure exactly what you mean. Is it the vent line that comes out of the top of the transfer shift lever housing? If so, I didn't have any lines coming out there.

Fording vent line. Yes that's it. If no line there should be a fitting.
Mine had no parking brake cable either!

The stay cable is supposed to fit into a fork on the top left side of the crossmember. The other end is threaded and bolts into the bottom
left hole in the bellhousing.

Just another crazy thought. When you removed the rear driveshaft from
the transfer case did you tie it up against the frame? If so it's not hitting
the rear of the transfer when you pull the assembly back by chance?

Who needs brakes anyway!

I'll check for the vent fitting, can't recall right now.

I didn't pull any lines from the crossmember and there isn't any lines attached there. What does that stay cable do anyway? Is that something I need to add ?

And the rear driveshaft I completely removed, the front drive shaft is still connected though up front; not the transfer.

The only other thing I can think of is somehow the clutch
fork has got out of place and is binding up and not
allowing the throwout bearing and carrier to slide on the shaft.

I went back and looked at your photos. Sorry. Answered
some of my own questions.

When you put it back together think about replacing your clutch
cross shaft or what some call the Z bar. Your clutch cable yoke has a
bolt in it instead of a pin and cotter. The adjustment
rod from the pedal shaft to the z bar is not stock either. Both tell
me the connecting holes in the z bar are wallowed out, which is typical.
The hole in the pedal shaft end is visible, meaning it's wallowed out
also. All of that means is your clutch adjustment is hinky at best and
will allow a lot of play. That will eventually fry your clutch and/or
throwout bearing. If you are pulling the tranny, replace the throwout bearing
Pilot bearing, z bar and the clutch rod and install the right pins.

You are going through a lot of trouble. You should fix this stuff also
so you don't have to come back.

Just my two cents.

Good information to know, I'll plan on replacing everything you pointed out along the way.

To the original question though, it sounds like there shouldn't be anything left to remove to free up the the ability for the tranny to fully slide back. Sounds like you leaning towards something hitting somewhere and halting the slide (hitting the drive shaft, making sure the crossmember is free and clear, etc.)?

Yes, you absolutely want the stay cable installed. If one of the mounts fail
or in a heavy downhill lurch, it keeps the power plant from driving the
fan into the radiator.

Yep, completely understand about the more you look the more you find
missing, broke or wrong!

Just get a light in the inspection panel hole on the top side of the bell housing and make sure nothing is stuck in the throwout bearing parts! If you can't freely move the fork and throwout bearing forward and aft a few inches then something is stuck.

Again, sorry for the lack of knowledge, first time dealing with transfer, tranny, clutch/bell housing in anyway.

The throwout bearing is what one end of the clutch release bearing carrier spring was connected too? If so, then that does move freely on the input shaft.

Since it seems I need to remove the bell housing anyway to fix some new issues, am I at a point where I can just unbolt he bell housing from the motor and pull that at the same time I pull the tranny and transfer? Since it seems like something is binding up the input shaft from sliding out, maybe something is caught up on the end of the input shaft where I can't see? All I know about clutches is that there are a lot of springs so I'm a bit hesitant with pulling bolts without knowing the outcome. I didn't see a 'bell housing removal' section in either book so I'm assuming its a quite simple.

The bell housing should be bolted to the tranny if you decide to remove it with the tranny!

The bellhousing removal is not tough. Pull the starter off first. You only want the bell housing not the thin plate between it and the block. Draw a layout of the bell bolt holes on a piece of cardboard then as you remove each bolt put it in the corresponding hole in the cardboard. Two of the bell bolts are special pilot bolts and you do not want to loose them and you want to get them back into the correct holes.

Another great photo, thank you.

Then that is what I will do next; put the 4 mounting bolts back for tranny to bell housing, remove starter and pull bell housing mounting bolts while recording where they came from. I'm hoping there is something jamming the input shaft within the bell housing, not some new bigger problem...