So.. I missed this little fact and ASSumed that it was a "rubber style" re-usable gasket... BAD ASSumtion! The gasket broke up into 10-12 segments, half of which were on the oip pan and the other half was on the tranny!
I desperately need a this "small pan" gasket and no local parts store/chain has (Felpro part number TOS 18756). Does anyone know equivalent gasket from another manufacturer?
Overall, it took me about 2 hours to clean off the gasket from the pans and from the transmission! Leaving the x-member in place and trying to work around it would have been an nightmare! I am glad I moved it out of the way (about 5 min without air tools).