Removing Bone From Hierarchy Animation/Bone Rotation During Animation Problem[Humanoid]

Hey everyone,

I have a humanoid character that is receiving animations through the Mechanim system and have been tinkering with rotating bones when an animation is playing. I have achieved (more or less) the desired rotation effect when it comes to both the Legs and Upper Body of my character.

I was only able to achieve this by removing a section of Spine from the in-game character hierarchy. I have tried using "LateUpdate" to keep the bones in their original place but the only rotational force that works (and not correctly) is...

 transform.LookAt(targetPosition);

when the desired effect comes from

 transform.rotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards (transform.rotation, targetRot, speed*0.5f);

"Spine1", is supposed to be a Child of "Spine". When under "Spine" the animation can play correctly but the rotation no longer works properly. When outside rotation is good but animation is now broken. I have been thinking that the avatar itself is breaking when I remove the spine fragment.

So, I am here today wondering if anyone knows a way to rotate a section of bone(Smoothly/Overtime) when a humanoid character is animating

Or, if anyone knows of a way to get the top part of my character animating again. (I have already tried a second animator but with no luck.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Have a good night all!