I got a 355 trans recently too....i paid 300 for mine and i pulled it, what did you pay? As for swapping the bellhousing yes the bellhousing is the entire half of the trans case. the bearign is pressed in but i am not sure if you can hammer it out with a large socket or not. I pulled the 355 bellhousing off to look inside and the sucker does not like comming off its dowel pins. good luck with your input bearing.....any info how the input bearing comes out DINO?

Terry