I wound up getting some more ATF fluid from the dealer, and after a lot of colorful language and perseverance while blindly finger-wrestling the plug, I got it to go. What a huge messy pain in the ass! I just couldn't get any significant angle on the bolt either lowering or pushing up with the jack. Tried a small prybar and got to the point where I was using more force that I was comfortable with, without seeing much result. Anyway, next time I may well just cut the bolt and replace it with a threaded rod and use two nuts and a washer to replace the "head" end - that way the fasteners can be removed from both ends and the rod could be removed in the other direction - towards the exhaust.
Thanks for the input everybody - glad to finally be a member of the board.
