What I meant to describe is that the actuator lever assembly as a whole (59 & 62) will actually come out (with some creative manipulation) from between the hub and the backplate (65), so long as the other end of the cable is disconnected to get slack.

Once in hand, it should be possible to separate 59 & 62 from each other, such that the cable end with just ferrule (#62) on it would be small enough to pass through the backplate (#65).

How to actually separate 59 & 62 from each other was not clear to me, but given they are sold a separate parts, it must be possible...

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1986 300E 5-Speed 240k mi.