after reading your reply i looked and determened ithere was no locating pins intalled in the tranny. thank you "svx-commuter". that IS the reason why my flex plate cracked. to tighten the flexplate bolts, hold the front harmonic balancer bolt with a wrench. a second set of hands is needed to tighten the flexplate bolts to torque. another hint for flexplate R/R: you do not need to fully drop tranny. you just need to slide it back far enough to reach in there with a 3/8" ratchet.
here's a pic (yes, a hand will fit in there)



here is the picture of my cracked plate.



ps if anybody knows how to get these pins from past experences pls let me know.

thanks