years ago when we were racing my 72 lt-1, i was going thru a clutch about every month during racing season. it was always a pita to get the transmission out of the way to pull the bell housing and clutch. what we ended up doing was to cut the center section out of the transmission support beam and added tubing and bolts to be able to drop that piece and the transmission easily. one time at irp in indianapolis we changed the clutch out between runs.
ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do!
in your case it was the collectors that were cut. that's thinking outside the box.
