So this thread is titled "tips and tricks" so here is one tip and trick. This is related to using the bearing splitter and puller.
I use the puller with long extensions to get the rear main shaft extension housing bearing off, then to pull the very snug bearing sleeve under the 5th gear needle bearing. It requires 16" extensions for one and 18" for the other. Being inherently lazy, and efficiency driven, the ordeal of spinning those 3/8 nuts back and forth on the long rods, or changing from 16 to 18 in rods and having two sets of nuts and washers, I find just too tedious and time consuming. What to do, what to do.... Let's see...
Surely there is a nifty "something" out there that allows you release a threaded nut and slide up and down, then quickly re-connect it with the threads.
Didn't take much googling to find the concept of a "slip on nut" to be a real thing.
Here is the first thing I found. Two interlocked nuts that rotate to expose an opening, then rotate to lock back on the threads. Found it on Fastenal's website, and low and behold, they actually had some at the store near me. I zoom over, and yes, she pulls out four of them in a baggy, goes to the computer and says "That will $60 bucks please"!
I let out the loudest laugh i have ever produced. She looked at me with very worried and surprised eyes, wondering what I'd say or do next. She managed to say with a straight face, "well, we do have minimum charges....". I apologized for possibly offensive behavior, thanked her for her time, declined the purchase and left..
Home I went to the internet. Found them on McMasterCarr for $5.75 each. BTW these are 3/8-16 thread. (PN 90125A031)
Even better, I also found on McMasterCarr a much slicker sliding nut system, the "Push Button Slide Adjust Nut (PN 98150A360) for a mere $10.83 each. Of course I bought both items to compare. I had other important things to buy from them as well, so I justified it easily. Like a bag of 25 orings that fit the speedo cog body and striker rod for $8 bucks (9262k892)rather than the $8 each that Nissan charges you. Same for snap rings (97633A290), and various individual ball bearings that match the ones you always lose when you take the trans apart)..... They are surprisingly all perfect SAE sizes. 0.25 (shifter rod detents), 3/32, etc.
(Yes, it all was more than $60 Canadian, I knew you'd ask....)
Anyway, the push button slider nuts are the best thing out there. Push, slide, release, thread to lock. The nut OD is quite large (over an inch for a 3/8 nut), but for this usage its perfect, as the base is flanged and fit the fingers on the puller head without additional washers.
The two piece slip on nuts work too, but are finicky.
BTW the trick to getting McMaster Carr to sell to Canadians is to register your account with a business name. Don't have to provide proof, just have a name in the box when you fill out their on-line form. I use my zKars handle.
Occasionally the courier driver will ask my name on delivery, I will blurt out my actual name and he will say "but the name on the waybill is ZKars". I show him a business card I had made up, he's happy.