[alexiskai]

So this story has a classic Model A ending. I got the splash apron off and the nuts unscrewed from the U-bolts, and I tried to extract them, but I realized I didn't have enough "head space" to get them out.

Then I realized that the reason I didn't have space to remove them was that someone in the past had welded a thick strip of steel over the top of the cross-member. I assume this is because it had cracked, as several folks here warned about. Due to the presence of this steel, the standard crank bearing wouldn't fit properly (and no holes to put the tabs in) and the standard U-bolts wouldn't be long enough.

... so I just scrubbed the rust off everything with a wire wheel and put it all back together and now I'm gonna leave it alone.