Bending Shifter

I want to put a slight bend in my main gear shifter. I have taken out the shifter boot assembly, and now I can see that the shifter lever seems to be "pushed" into rod of sorts that goes into the gearbox. Now, the top part of the shifter seems to move in the rod that goes into the gearbox but won't unscrew. I don't want to force anything nor do I want to heat it up to make a slight bend while still attached. If your wondering why I want to do this it's because I've installed a twin shifter for the transfer case and 4th and reverse are hitting. I only need to bend the main shifter about 1.5"
Any Ideas?? I would appreciate any help.
Thanks.

 

heat

 

yep......a little heat(maybe a small torch), then place a block of wood behind said shifter, then bend a bit.....let it cool off then put everything flammable back on(shift boot, shifter knob).

 

No heat ^^^

 

hell....heat is gonna be about the only way to do it, cause if you just try bending it.....it could bend too far and break.......with a little heat, you can put a little bit of a crook in there the way you want it.

 

You almost have to use heat!!! they will break trust me!!! been there!!

 

yeah but the shifters in first gens should just un bolt from top of trans with 4 bolts.... take the whole shifter setup to work bench secure in vise... use piece of 3' long pipe and give slow increasing pulls on it in direction you want to go... adding little heat does help hate to say but can be done without

 

Thanks All.
Get this: Brought it to the shop and the old man put the took off the shifter knob, moved the seat back braced himself with his big old foot on the lever then pushed until it was where I wanted it. Put the knob back and I was on my way! less than three minutes. You never know.
Thanks again.

 

cool deal!!!