Could anyone who's successfully attacked a J head help with the following?
I'd like to service the exposed autofeed trip components on the front of the quill as they've collected a lot of gunk over the years and need the strip/clean/oil treatment. Fitted into the top bracket of the 6" tall depth-guage/micro-screw there are three small components that reverse the trip action - a downloaded parts list calls them 'reverse trip ball lever', 'reverse trip plunger' and 'reverse trip lever screw'. The outer 'lever screw' is missing on this head but the other two components are present.
My problem is I can't find any way to get the 'ball lever' out so that the rest of the trip feed mechanism can be stripped. The ball lever appears to project into a slot in the top of the depth-guage/micro-screw preventing that component's withdrawal until the ball lever is extracted. The ball lever seems free to move - it waggles about when the micro-screw is shifted up and down. I've tried pulling it out with small tweezers but it won't come out more than a few thou before resistance is met and the tweezers slip off. The lever can't be more than half an inch long but it seem to be catching securely on something. As the lever is hollow and looks like it could have a fine internal thread I was wondering whether it's supposed to be jacked out with a screw (If so what thread would it be?).
I don't want to damage anything by just using some kind of brute force (I'd also like to be able to re-use the lever). So is there a way to dismantle these components that I'm missing through lack of a manual? Or has the lever just become pocketed a bit and needs to be forcefully extracted? Any thoughts appreciated.
-Neil F.