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The next step is to remove the bolts attaching the rear case to the front
case. As the instructions say, be sure to keep these bolts as you will be
using them to bolt the case halves back together. I am not sure why DC did
it (it is in the FSM though), but they put used one spline head bolt in with the
rest of the hex head bolts that hold the t-case together. It is
just to the right of the 15mm one that Alan is taking out. I cheated and
used a 12 point socket on it and it took it out just fine. Later on, I
told Alan the FSM said it was a spline and he told me he had spline
wrenches. Oh well, what can I say....maybe the reason will become clear once I put the t-case in Lady.
After the bolts were removed, we grabbed a pair of the biggest
screwdrivers Alan had. There are two slots, one on each end of the t-case,
where you can inset the blade and pry the case apart without scratching up the
sealing surface. Use the biggest screwdriver you can fit into the
slot. Here is Alan putting the lean on of the slots.
With a bit of tenacity, we were able to separate the front and rear halves from each other, as shown above. The RTV will work against you while doing this, but it can be overcome without too much effort. Note that there are two metallic alignments dowels that you need to keep track of. An alignment dowel is a sleeve that fits into a bolt hole and causes the opposite case to align itself when you are pushing them back together. You need to make sure they remain in the rear case half (or more them to it when you get the cases separated) since they too need to be used upon assembly. One of the dowels are circled in red in the above picture. You will be able to clearly see them once the cases are completely apart.
Continue to work the cases apart from each other. Take your time, being careful not to get those big screwdrivers onto the sealing surfaces. You don't want to gouge them up and risk having a fluid leak after you put everything back together. It requires a bit of pushing, pulling, prying, and shaking. Unfortunately, I don't remember what order all of that occurred in so you are going to have to experiment a bit until you get them apart. Just take it easy so you don't end up with a bench full of parts all scrambled up and you are thinking "Now how did those things all fit back together?"