As far as I can recall, I had the front end up on ramps. The rear end was on two lengths of 8x8 lumber under each rubber (the half-ball just forward of the rear wheels). One set of 8x8 pointing fore-and-aft, and one set pointing sideways to give it sideways stability. This made the car just about level, with lots of room to deal with the drive shaft and exhaust.

I can't remember how much clearance I had to slide the transmission out. It was on the ground, not on a jack. There would not have been room to pull it out sitting on a jack.

I used a cheap ($50) motorcycle jack. The complex ones won't fit. This one is just a 6"x17" platform with a screw like a giant flat scissors jack. Lots of travel, plenty of weight capacity, and it goes down to about 4" thick, unlike the transmission jacks which require a lot of vertical clearance. It was very easy to get the transmission stable on the platform with a 2x4 or two, with no balancing required.

Invest in a 17 mm u-joint socket and some very long extensions, for the upper bolt just behind the oil filter.

Andrew
1989 190e 2.6