900 GTS Engine Removal

[davidr]

Greetings to all!
I'm a new poster to the forum and, a new Ducati owner having recently purchased a 78' 900 GTS. The bike is stock with just over 13K but has been sitting for some uncertain number of years. It's all there but, after looking the needed service issues over I decided I might as well drop the engine to have better access to the wiring harness and frame cosmetics.
The bike is dissasembled (wheels and forks off, selector box off, electrical bits disconnected, etc.) to the point where I'm ready to remove the frame but I'm a little stumped as to how to accomplish this.
The Haynes manual suggests the motor will pivot around the bottom rear mounting bolt, and then can be pulled forward and down to remove it sideways from the frame.
I thought, perhaps incorrectly, that based on that method, I should be able to support the motor, raise the front of the frame having it pivot around the rear lower bolt, and then pull the frame away to accomplish the same end.
However I'm at a standstill. There are two clearance issues to overcome as far as I can tell. When pivoting the frame, there doesn't seem to be enough clearance to rotate it around the starter motor. The other problem is the wide, flat frame tab at the botom of the frame near the mounting point for the center stand, doesn't want to clear the engine casting bulge for the crossover gearchange shaft.
So, the question(s): Can the frame come off the electric start models without removing the starter motor? Is it necessary to "pry" the frame around the starter and the rear engine casting? ( Don't like the idea of prying) Or, is there some technique or methodology that is escaping me in this stage as a rookie Ducati owner? Thought this process would be pretty straightforward but I'm struggling...
If anyone has experience and can offer some insight, information, tricks or alchemy to help me get this frame and motor separated I would really appreciate it.
Thanks

Dave

[BevHevSteve]

David I don;t have a clue why noone has answered you yet. If you still need advise call me or shoot me an email please. It is pretty straightforward. You need to take off the engine side covers to get the motor out. Easy stuff. I apologize, I don;t know how I missed this question from you....