Demolition: Wheel Hubs and Transaxle

In order to get the engine and transmission pulled from the engine bay, the drive shafts need to come out of the transaxle and wheel hubs. After removing the drivers side wheel/tire, this is what the wheel hub, brake assembly, and front suspension looks like:

After removing a few nuts and retaining pins, I made good use of a ball joint separator I ordered online and popped the lower suspension arm free. Next, I proceeded to pull the outboard drive shaft spline out of the wheel hub and swing it out of the way. I repeated these steps on the passenger side wheel hub.
Below is a close-up of the splines as viewed from the back side of the hub. 
The first step to pulling the drive shafts out of the transaxle is to remove the manual transaxle oil. Out comes the plug and the oil runs into a drain pan. This stuff is really dark.
Can you see that notch in the black metal (above the clamp holding the protective boot and below the barcoded label)? The manual says to use a slide hammer with  a special hook attachment at the end to snag the edge of that notch to yank the drive shaft out of the transaxle.
Unfortunately, this step has me temporarily stuck. I've tried several tools, several methods, and read numerous accounts of how people were able to remove similar drive shafts from Toyotas. For now, none of these approaches have succeeded. Until I can figure out how to get around this issue, I can't proceed to unbolt the engine mounts from the chassis and remove the last of the internal combustion components. Roadblock #1.

Demolition: Linkages and Windshield Wipers

There are a lot of little things that are mounted and/or connected to the transmission housing. My next task was to carefully photograph, diagram, and label all the parts that had to be disconnected or removed so that I could reassemble them properly since I am retaining the vehicles stock transmission.

Above: this piece pushes on the clutch fork, which in turn moves the throw out bearing inside the transmission housing.

Below: the shift linkage that come through the firewall from the cabin are mounted to the top of the transmission. 

Next I removed the front windshield cowl and complete windshield wiper assembly. These parts need to be removed in order to lift the engine out of the car. In addition, I found out that you can't remove the wiring harness at the ECU with these pieces in place. Everything is crammed into this engine bay.
Here is a photograph of the engine bay showing how everything looks when most of the disconnecting work is completed. At this point, there are some things I need to disassemble at the wheel hubs and the transaxle before I am able to hoist this engine out.

Tools for heavy lifting

A friend of mine loaned me an engine hoist. While I wasn't quite ready for it, I didn't want to not have it when the right day came. So I loaded it into my Prius and brought it home early. While I have it early, I thought it would be a good opportunity to lift the motor out of its box and prep it a little.

Using some low-tack painters masking tape, I covered up the grills/openings on the motor to ensure that no debris would accidentally fall into it while I work on the car. Once fabrication of new parts begins, there is a chance that something could get in there and cause problems later. Problem avoided.
Here's a photo I really like. I wanted to check and make sure that I could position the hoist properly and get the engine out given the limited space I have in our 2-car garage. The Yaris is parked such that it is very close to the garage door (about 1 foot gap to the bumper) and there is probably 6 feet or so between the front bumper and the garage wall. So, I was concerned about getting the hoist in place and having room to maneuver. It looks like things will be fine.