Starter removal to get tranny out Frontier

1st the Nissan shop 99 frontier 4X4 manualappreciatedemove the starter in order to remove the tranny. I don't understand why because it is in front of were the oil changing tank on the other side, (front toward engine side), of the flange were the tranny bolts to engine are and sticking out the front on the drivers side.

Regardless the stupid manual says nothing about getting the starter out it seems to stick into the front of the tranny with no bolts to hold it in and getting @ the cilinoid to remove the wires looks impossible. Please comment / help.

My second problem is I need to remove the shift main control lever and the book again dose not help. Looking down on it you see a square cover over three shifter held down with 4 bolts. The shifter goes through a hole in this cover were a large C clip, (inch 1/2 or so diameter) can be seen. Can you help me with instructions on steps to remove this shifter.

The third thing is it dose not seem to be clear wether the transfer box must be removed it dose say to remove the front drive axle, which is easy.

Any other hints you can think of would be appreciated the manual is not the greatest--it dose a good job @ explaining removal off torsion bars.

Thanks