Early 1988 Samurai Manual Transmission.

I was removing the transmission from my Samurai to replace the front seal and had a great deal of trouble getting out....
The Haynes manual says:

 " 11. remove the rear transmission support-to-crossmember nuts ans bolts. 12. Raise transmission slightly and remove the crossmember. 13. Remove the front crossmember." 

The rear crossmember is part of the frame and short of a hacksaw can't be removed. I managed to move the transmission to the rear and rotate it about 45 degrees and drop the front down and squeezed it past the clutch pressure plate by tilting the rear of the engine down. This doesn't seem like a reasonable process so I'm wondering what I'm missing? The rear cross member is stock. (it hasn't been welded in place by someone) It came from the factory that way. Getting the transmission back in place is going to be a royal bitch unless there is a different way. WTF Am I just stupid or do you have to pull the engine to make it easy? Suggestions please....

simple as it sounds, but everyone notches the x-member....

Yah I know the feeling... I cursed Suzuki's name many times the first time I took my transmission out with the motor still in.
After understanding the process that it takes for my transmission to come out, it comes out quite easily. I am unable to twist and turn my transmission in its tunnel, maybe I could if I took off the clutch fork. Its unclear to me if you've gotten the tranny out, so here is how I do it with a weighted center force pressure plate.

-Engine and transmission separated.
-Transmission pushed back as far as possible. A gusset on the transmission is what needs to come in contact with the cross member.
-Lower the transmission which should be on a jack, until about a mm is between the pressure plate and bell housing. This allows room for my impact gun, if using a drive and socket you may be able to skip this step.
-Rotate the pressure plate in the direction so that crank pulley moves clockwise. I'm rotating while taking the pressure plates bolts off. My impact gun allows for only 2 places were it can come into contact with pressure plate bolts.
-With the pressure plate and disk off of the flywheel, enough room is available to angle the transmission out.

-Reassembly requires aligning the disk while the transmission is in its tunnel. 

Thanks for the info. I did manage to remove the transmission but I will notch the rear cross member plate before I reinstall it. I wonder why Suzuki didn't just move the cross member back a little and make the attach bracket a little longer or at least mentioned it in the factory shop manual. They just say to drop the transmission down.......!!!! 

Wait until you do the 1.6 swap and you have the adaptor to deal with. I just did my tranny and while it was wedged against the clutch I removed the adaptor. Then picked it up a little and slammed it down past the clutch.

I don't have to take my adapter off...