You must have not been holding your mouth just right lol! I've had those, clutch job on front wheel drive SOB. Sometimes I wonder if I should get a tranny jack.
I have a Transmission jack from harbor freight, they work but they have a lot of slop and not very accurate.
The higher you jack it up the the more the Transmission can sway to one side or the other.
Even with a trans jack you still have to wrestle it but the jack holds the bulk of the weight which is nice.
The downside of the jack is you have to lift the vehicle MEGA high if you want to roll the jack under it with the transmission on it. If not then you have try to lift the trans onto the jack while laying on the floor which damn sure isn't happening.
The transmission jacks help but are not the end all problems solution