I haven't removed the pumpkin, but a few others have and it sounds like an incredibly involved process. Jon (VXorado) gave me some pointers when I was thinking of doing this so hopefully he, or someone else who has done this, will see this and chime in.

From what I remember enough has to be removed so that it can slide a bit to one side (drivers I think) so that the other side can drop first and then the whole thing should drop out.

Maybe shoot VXorado a PM.