hi folks, i hope you can give me a tip to get my steering coupling off. after removing the screws i tried prying the halves apart, penetrating oil, tapping it with a hammer, levering it with a small prybar -- nothing so far. i'm reluctant to use fire because of the nearby rubber piece.

the FSM just says "slip steering coupling upwards" as if it were trivial. inspecting one i have on my workbench there seem to be ribs on the shaft side, perpendicular to the splines, which look like they would block such movement. what am i missing?

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'77 240D, 504H, OM617.952, etc.