dropping tranny in 99 metro

Noticed while preparing to pull out transmission on mi in laws 99 metro that there wasn't much clearance between tranny and side of engine compartment. Was wondering if tranny will come out without removing engine as well? Its an automatic

it only need to come away from the transmission about a inch. also you will need to remove the tranny mount and firewall mount so you can lower it down far enough to clear everything to come out. need to lower it down then support engine then use jack to support tranny as you remove it. also be sure to unbolt torque converter before you unbolt tranny from engine , its supposed to come out with the tranny

since you say there is limited room I'm assuming you have the 4 cylinder as opposed to the 3 cylinder-when I swapped out the auto tranny on my 96 4 cylinder I discovered the flywheel still protruded into the bellhousing of the transmission when the transmission was unbolted and against the left firewall-I purchased a "cherry picker" from harbor freight and removed the engine mount bolts and moved the engine sideways towards the passenger side until there was room to drop the transmission-there was enough slack in the wires where I didn't have to do any disconnects-I had to remove the pulleys and remove the A/C compressor from the engine block and tie it off to keep stress off the refrigerant line-to install the transmission I raised it into position, moved the engine back in to bolt it into the mounts, bolted the engine and tranny together and finally installed the tranny mounts-