I haven't got far enough along to R&R a MB manual transmission. But I'm friends with a girl who likes to kill transmissions in her Toyota truck. I've R&R 2 transmissions in the last 6 months for her
without any oil in the transmission its pretty light. I just bribed a friend with beer and had him help me with lifting it into place... I wish I had one of those transmission jacks your talking about, would make it a 1 man job with no safety issues. Let me know how it works.

On the issue of lightness, heres a picture of me holding one of the old iron boxes above my head.

__________________