HELP! exhaust shaft lever won't come out!

[dweezil]

I have tried for two days to pull the exhaust advance shaft lever out of the right engine side cover.

 My problem is that I don't know how to get the stupid little positioning pin out the hole. All the manual says is to take out the plug screw and remove the positioning pin. Sounds simple but the pin dose not just fall out.Any help would be great. I've tried soaking it in PB Blaster and tapping on it with a magnet but no go. Is there some sort of trick to it? I haven't tried drilling it because that would be my last shot.

[moburki]

Mine was really stuck, just gunked up with carbon. I ended up taking the valves out with the shaft (kinda simultaneously). Be patient with it, the shaft interfaces with the verticle valve drums, which will need to come out, and those were also really stuck. Check the top end rebuild instructions on this page if you haven't already. Maybe someone will chime in if I've forgotten something important.
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