Hey guys, trying to change my water pump, its an 86 25 hp johnson and i have removed the one nut, 4 bolts, and screens. I have seperated the brass nuts inside of screens ,leaving the bottom one alone as told, and removed the plastic black clip exposed after seperating these two brass nuts. I expected the shift rod to come up high enough for me to slide the top brass nut off the linkage when put into forward gear but it did not, and I can not get the lower end to come off.
I'm not sure what I need to do to persuade this lower end off. I've tried taps witha rubber mallett, no luck... I'm not sure if the top brass bolt is stopping the removal (is this piece's removal vital to sliding the lower end off?) or if theres something else, but here is the pic of the linkage, hopefully this shows my problem.