Cover me! I'm goin' in!

I believe I have all the replacement seals and fluid required to perform
this job, but the bentley manual shows everything clean, disassembled, and
liberally sprinkled with special tools. I am seeking counsel from someone
who has done the repair sufficient to keep the ATF out of the gear oil. I
dont like the idea of scrambling to find a machine shop with a press open on
sat/sun. My skill level is somewhere between novice and intermediate. Im
taking it on because I cant afford the quote I got to do the work. I might
just learn something.

Specific questions:

I have 2 of the pinion seals, but do I need to remove the pinion from the
final drive to r&r the seals?
From the drawing in bently page 39.57 it looks as if the pair of seals  are
accessible after the AT is removed, UNLESS they are very tightly bound
between the cover plate and the oil seal sleeve.

If I do have to remove the pinion, do I have to check end play and be
prepared to shim as indicated in bentley? ( I didn't actually buy parts to
cover this)

I was tentatively planning to remove the ATF cooler from the tranny before
dismounting the AT and let it dangle from the coolant lines to avoid
bleeding the cooling system. Possible? Dumb idea?

Any firsthand experience will be greatly appreciated. I promise to make lots
of photos and a procedure available, should I succeed. If I fail, my
specific failure procedure wont be interesting I reckon.

Robert
90 MV AT-wishing I had a 4speed manual