The engine had to come out...
At least that was what I thought by the end of my attempt at transmission removal (input spline rusted solid to the engine damper plate), I found out later that I should have just rotated the engine to remove each of the damper plate bolts and pulled it out as one piece.
Now I'm glad I did pull the engine, because I am cleaning, re-plumbing and rewiring this thing (and the entire engine room) properly, then giving it a fresh coat of paint, in this case: a four stage full engine repaint kit of Por 15 in bright yellow instead of the cheap blue Rustoleum from the previous owner. The engine swinging in the picture is a Mercedes OM636, a 42 horsepower beast of iron designed in the 1930's for early Mercedes diesel cars, and later pushed to industrial and farm tractor use, then used in most of the German and Swiss military Unimogs until they were later marinised by Penta and Nanni diesel. This one, I believe, was a Penta, but it now has an assortment of marinisation parts. Luckily there are a couple diesel motorheads in the world still providing full support and parts. http://www.west4x4.demonweb.co.uk/OM636/index.html
The project was put on hold for a couple days while we finish the vee berth so we can actually move aboard. We had been "living" on it full time until the engine removal, but in reality we were still sleeping on the settes and tossing our clothes bags around while cleaning and sorting the many compartments in the boat. Today it should be a home.