I'd say you were.
I have seen one lever absolutely *fused* onto the cross shaft. No amount of
heating, or putting a puller on it could get it off, not even hours of doing
that. I finally had to cut the lever off with a torch.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Collum" <collum@MYFAIRPOINT.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Manual trans replacement

> It sounds like I got really lucky.  when I removed my tranny and
> replaced the crank seal (among other things) I also replaced the cross
> shaft bushings.  I didn't have any real trouble getting the clutch lever
> off and that was after many northeast winters, too.
>
> Mike