What John said. You got the little arm off so now the fork shaft is free to rotate. Anyone who says it’s easier to remove the engine and transmission together has never done it the other way. I would only remove the transmission if you need to take it apart for repair.

hmm.... are you saying you can access the bolts holding the gearbox to the engine with them in?

so far I have dropped them together, never looked to see is/how to pull only one and leave the other in.

elaborate?

Hi Bob, removing engine with out the trany is a piece of cake..in my good days i could do a clutch job in 50 minutes;-)of course on a shop hoist...

However removing the trany with engine in i major pain in a but.I have seen it somewhere recently on the net....

Ivan

You lower the engine to get at the top fasteners. Reach over the top. Disconnect shift coupler from the trans first.

To elaborate on the process. Disconnect the shift coupler (using the set screw, not the slip joint). Loosen the transmission mount bolts so that the transmission can tip down with the motor. Make sure you support the transmission so that it doesn’t drop enough to damage the shift rod.

This method is especially good for those of us that do this job solo. The transmission is held securely while you pull on the engine and when you push it back in.

-Andy

I just wanted to follow up and close out this post. I returned from my travels and faced the beast again. After about 6 heat cycles using MAPgas the clutch arm came free. It took about 20 minutes of prying ant tapping the shaft to drop it. Once done I was able to separate engine and trans. I will make a new post as I will need some advice about my oil leaks.....
Thanks to everyone who chipped in with help.

Darwin

I am trying to remove the clutch cable arm but it looks like mine has a pin that might be holding it in place? Do I need to punch that out before prying the arm off? It doesn't seem to be threaded, I can't see anywhere to put an allen key or anything. I don't want to pry and break something.

https://imgur.com/099VQtr.png

Yup. Need to punch that roll pin out. My advice is don't reinstall it when done.

Taking the engine out was not the problem for me. Putting it back in with the transmission in the car... that was a doozy. Ultimately, I had to drop the transmission, mate it to the engine, and reinstalled the whole thing as a unit.

I have always dropped engine+gearbox as a unit, on the ground, not on a lift. Water-cooled 996/997 engines are dropped with their gearboxes using a lift.

Never tried aircool engine-only drops. Once you get used to something and quick at it, it's hard to try a different process.