A8skyhawk

So I am stuck. Here is the procedure I am on from Jim Shea's Paper Number 3:





Here is what I'm looking at:




I've removed the retaining ring #53 and the support washer #54 - what I can't seem to figure out is how to disengage the lock plate #55 from the inside of the mast jacket #63. I have a puller ready to start removing the bowl, but it looks like if I start pulling the lock plate will hang up on the mast jacket. Any clues? Thank you.

For reference here is the numbered part diagrams:

A8skyhawk

So I came the conclusion on my own (scary) that the lock plate had to come out. The best way I could see to do it was to bend the tab shown below ever so slightly out of the way. After I did that I was able to maneuver the lock plate up and off, then I used a jaw puller as shown in the Mr. Shea's Paper 3 to pull the shift tube bowl off. Of note, I plan on using the correct tool to pull them back together (found one for ~75.00 on eBay) ... I don't want to risk collapsing the shift tube. Hopefully someone smarter can chime in with a better way to do this. If not, perhaps it will help someone else stuck one day.

A8skyhawk

So I think I have found the correct way to do this without bending the tab... it is to use Tool J-23072 or something like it. The method I discussed above involved pulling the shift tube bowl from the shift tube. Best I can tell, tool J-23072 is designed to use the lock plate to push the shift tube down and out from the shift tube bowl. So where I bubba pulled the shift tube bowl off, this tool lets you not bend anything and push the shift tube from the bowl (note: you must have the bottom end of the shift tube disassembled and free space beneath the shift tube so you don't crush the shift tube using this method)... In any case the cheapest J-23072 I have found is ~140.00 on eBay.