Removing the Oil Pan on 88 F150 4.9L engine

Yea, this is the same truck with the loose cab and annoying ignition key
button.  This time the problem is serious.
This is mostly just a farm truck.  I ran it the other day just to haul
some hay bales around the farm.  It was very cold outside.  Truck barely
started, but did.  Drove it about mile, and noticed some strange sounds,
which were like a grinding whistle (hard to explain).  I just figured it
was cold.  Later in the day I ran it again for a couple minutes and
noticed a noisy lifter.  Again, I figured it was just cold.

Next day I started it and lifter was more noisy.  I looked at the oil
pressure and it was ZERO.  I'm thinking "bad sensor", but proceed to
check the oil.  It's about a quart low, so I add a quart, start it,
still no oil pressure.  I check to see if wire is on the sensor, and it
is.  I drive it about a mile and then it sounds like more than one
lifter is noisy.  I park it and check the oil again, thinking I was not
wiping it well.  It's full.  So I start it again, thinking that the oil
sensor really is bad, and the noisy lifters are because I never let the
truck warm up.  I decide to let it warm up at idle.  Then I see a red
light on dash saying "ENGINE".  (never saw that one before).  About that
time it starts to really chatter and run like shit.  Then it killed.  

Well, at this point, I'm realizing there is a serious problem, but I
have to move it because it's blocking my car and my tractor.  It
restarts, but this time there is also a yellow "CHECK ENGINE" light in
addition to the red "ENGINE" light. I proceed to move the truck about 20
feet and it kills again.  (at least it was not blocking other vehicles).

I have not tried to start it since.  I now know it's really not getting
oil.  (not a bad sensor).  A guy who works at a auto parts store tells
me that he's seen that happen on these engines. Said the pin sheared
where the oil pump connects to the distributor, and I need to replace
the oil pump.  Tells me to check the rod bearings too, because running
it without oil could have damaged them.  

Anyhow........

I'm pretty much figuring the best thing to do with this truck is to haul
it to the junk yard.  But this guy says just take off the pan, and take
a look.  It's probably just the oil pump..... Then he tells me I have to
drain oil, loosen motor mounts and jack engine up a few inches, and
stick 2x4 blocks under both mounts.  Then remove the oil pan.  Well,
that dont sound too bad.....

I've been looking on the web, and I've seen everything from simply
removing the pan bolts and the pan can be worked out without raising the
engine, all the way to remove all of the following.
Radiator & hoses
Shroud
Starter
Exhaust system
Engine mounts
Tranny mount
Tranny crossmember
Intake manifold including all hoses and linkages.

Ummmmmmmmm........ Why dont they just say "take the whole goddamn truck
apart"......

Honestly, this is an old beater farm truck, but it did run pretty well
till this.  But if I have to remove all this shit, it's on it's way to
the junk yard.  At this point I only want to take off the pan and see
what things look like.  If bearing are bad, I may as well just toss the
pan in the cab and call the junk yard wrecker.  But if an oil pump and
pan gasket will fix it, then I'll fix it.

Here is a thought.
Rather than remove all this stuff, why cant I just take a sawsall and
just saw away the middle of that support (cross member) under the
engine.  Then do my repairs, weld some flanges on the end of the cut
away piece of that support, and bolt it back.  That sure seems a lot
easier than removing all that other stuff.

Is this possible?

It's an 88 F-150 4wd, Manual 4speed Tranny, 4.9 liter straight 6 cyl.

Thanks