986 Range shift cover?

I'm trying to remove the cover from the range transmission. Having no success as of yet. I have the park shaft up as far as I can get it and wedged as such. Have the cover off the left side, and can see the vertical reverse shaft is clear of the reverse fork although the fork won't slip out yet because the shaft can't quite lift out/up enough. The cover is loose, and will come up 1/2 to 3/4 inch all around, but won't lift straight up. The park pawl appears to the obstacle. What am I overlooking or what must I do next to get this thing apart? SOMEONE out there has been there before. What was your trick?

Ah Grass Hopper you have a HUGE problem , Now do not hold me to this a gospel but twice in my career i have run into this and i am here to tell ya it is going to be FUN lots and LOTS of fun. I am betting that the anchor pin that hold the park loc pawl on the mount has worked loose and slid back and is now hitting the rear to the range transmission as that area of the housing has a step BACK built into it You do have the side cover off where the rev. shift fork is i hope . I fought one here a couple years back . I ended up making a took with some twists and tweaks and ground a wedge tip on the end to get behind the pin and force it back into the mount by driving the wedge tip between the pin and transmission housing. From the left side under the cab on a 1086 . This job was only going to take me a couple hours to fix the detent and spring . Yea wright 9 and a half hours later i was done. So here is how you do this first get the top cover up as far as you can on the left side and get you body down under the cab , removal of the left battery box helps . With a good adjustable beam flash light you can just barley see in there with one eye and cocking your head just wright i think you will see what i am talking about . Next get a good STIFF 1/2 to 5/8 steel rod and start building as it is going to take some bending an tweaking and make it long enough so you can beat on the end while holding it . Once you have all the bends and tweaks done make a long tapper wedge on one side facing the pin and a short flat spot on the back side and have at it .

I think I see what you mean. That makes sense because it's the right rear corner of the cover that seems to be the hangup. Comes up maybe 1/2 in or so then gets solid. Never having been into one, I had no idea what's in there, or what it looks like. All the diagrams and parts photos show what it SHOULD look like with no surprises, but that still leaves plenty of room for doubt. Guess I'll head back out there tomorrow and see what I can do now that I have an idea of what might be going on.

Thanks