It’s way way way way earlier to turn the transmission. Drop the drive line from the rear end. Like I said it’s the angle of the dangle.
Making it way harder than it has to be.
As an FYI on a 2 post lift with a trans jack, I can pull and put in a different trans in my car in less than an hour by myself. On the ground is like 2 hours. Speaking on bearing on the ground, 2 weeks ago I was putting in a racing 5 speed transmission in an English Ford Escort that has next to no clearance, you had to have the trans on the bell and turn it 90° and stick the spline through the dual disk clutch and then turn it 90° and slide onto the locating pins. It was a C**t….