By far the best 'shade tree' trick for swapping a TRANNY (hah!) is to drop a rope through the shifter hole and around the tranny (shifter removed, of course). Then use that to suspend the weight as you remove the crossmember and unbolt it from the engine. The rope holds the weight but can still allow the tranny to rotate and swing back and forth as you disassemble/reasssemble it and the engine. A helper on the rope is a bonus - its not too hard to hold the tranny like that. Failing that I've even done it myself as a scrawny teenager (many years ago - I'm no longer a teenager now but still scrawny!) by running the rope out the door, around the sill, and under the car where I would secure it myself.