I saw my name mentioned and figured I would chime in. It's been a while since I have been on this site. I haven't updated my thread about my build in a long time.
I am a noobie to this stuff, but I figured I would do it as a fun learning experience. Everyone had pretty much told me to buy a 4x4 truck and swap the suspension parts over, but I figured that would've been too easy. And, for me, too expensive.
My truck is a 96, and I got the 4x4 tailhousing and output shaft from a local transmission shop for pretty cheap, around $40 I think. I took the transmission (4R44E) out and tore it apart myself. The problem about this project was that I thought I could just take off the tail housing and the output shaft, put the new ones in, and be done with it. In actuality, the transmission has to be ENTIRELY DISASSEMBLED. That includes removing all the drums and bands, the valve body, the bushings and bearings, and also the shifting pistons (or whatever they are called). This took me a full weekend to do, with shop manual, and I still managed to mess it up. Stuck in 3rd gear.
I took it out and had someone disassemble and check everything. I got it back, and it worked decent for a couple weeks before it got weak, and no reverse gear.
Basically, it sat in the weeds since then. Just last night, I decided to check Craigslist for a manual transmission, and Jumping Jehosaphat, I found a 4x4 manual transmission for a 1996 2.3L. First one I have found in the area after looking for 3 years. So I'm indeed taking the easy way out.
I just wanted to warn you in case you weren't prepared for the intensive transmission work this would take.
Otherwise, you swap is very similar to mine, and should be fun when you're done!