1997 ford ranger 4x4 3.0L 5-spd manual. Trying to replace clutch. Have transmission completely unbolted, sitting on a jack. We can't get it to back out of the opening between the firewall and the suspension cross member below (sorry, I don't know what it is called). The cross member ties to the front axle and has four bolts in the middle of it suggesting that it can be taken apart into two pieces. However, because of its association with the suspension I am reluctant to do that without knowing what the consequences are. The transmission bell housing simply will not fit between the firewall and this cross member. We have tried everything including tiliting it to the point where the transmission almost fell off the jack. Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated. I've never encounterd anything like this before and it has us at a complete standstill.
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I just read the removal procedure in alldata and it said to remove the crossmember.

 

Just pull the bolts out of the crossmember and pull it down.