The pickup is seperate from the filter, the filter is actually flat about 1/4" thick. I just finished doing mine-although not difficult, in order to get to the tranny you have to drop the cross brace that runs under the front portion of the pan in order to get it out. I bought mine as a kit-came with all necessary o-rings(2) pan gasket and filter. SICP had the cheapest price, I believe about 26.00. Thats about the only way to go. No need to drop the pan without all the parts-you may find that your going to need the o-rings and the gasket as I did on mine. Good Luck and give it a couple hours to do-getting the cross brace out to the majority of the time.

Chris Beireis
'88 RR
'80 IH Scout II Turbodiesel
'72 Jag XJ6 Series 1