Morris Minor Owners Club

Background info: ’61 Morris 1000 w/a 1275 engine and ribbed gearbox. From?

Because the gearbox was very noisy in 1st and liked to jump out of 2nd I knew that it needed some TLC, so decided to pull the gearbox and see what parts needed replacing.
Following the BMC manual I did everything it said until I got to the point where it says to:
“Turn the gearbox upside down and withdraw the rearmost of the two hexagon plugs with fibre washers from the bottom of the gearbox. Withdraw the third and forth speed selector rod ……..
Problem is that the rod doesn’t want to come out, it moves maybe about 1/32” (.8mm) back and forth and that’s all. It sounds like it is striking something.
The gearbox is in 1st gear and I can’t get it to shift into neutral, so I assume that it’s the interlock that’s preventing the 3rd & 4th selector rod from coming out.
Don’t understand why it won’t shift into neutral, any thoughts or tips on this?
I tried prying on the selector fork but it doesn’t want to move. I have a suspicion that maybe it’s gone farther over than it should have.
Can I pull the 1st & 2nd selector rod out at this point? Or will the interlock also prevent it from coming out.

Any help/tips/suggestions would be most appreciated.

It's many many years since I did a Minor gearbox - and even then, would be smooth case boxes. But yes i guess it needs to be in neutral. No harm trying to get the 1st/2nd shaft out - just remember where all the little interlock bullets go.....

When I've done this job, I have removed the wrong hexagon plug thinking the bell housing was the rear end, it can happen! That's all I can think of.

Found that the 1st gear had slipped too far rearward and didn't want to go back "home", but after some gentle persuation and light tapping, managed to get it sorted out and now have the gearbox apart.
The manual says after removing the 3rd-4th selector rod to remove 2 balls from different locations, took a bit to dicipher from the manual where they are supposed to be, found one and finally persuaded it to come out from it's covering of black goop. The other was AWOL, so no wonder I couldn't find it.
Now I just need to get a new laygear (cluster gear in our lingo) and a new 1st gear before reassembling this beast.
Also need a LHD front cover for this ribbed box, to replace the improper one that was on it.