Chrysler Repair: 2000 town & country tranny (604), body bolts, valve body

Question
The shift lever shaft is frozen, the only way to turn the lever is to tap the arm
with a hammer at the tranny.  The valve body bolts are removed, and I got the
valve body to drop about a 1/2".  I been spraying the shaft for about a week
now to no avail.  Any ideas on how to free the shaft:  beat on it, heat?
thanks

Answer
HI Doug,
I haven't been inside of this trans. The manuals shows there are either 7 or 18 bolts (depending upon which figure) that attach the valve body, once you drop the pan and remove the oil filter. Are all those out? It then says in the text to extract the 'park rod from guide bracket'. It doesn't show that part, exactly but if you look above the narrower end of the valve body (the part that wasn't covered by the filter) there is a figute that shows there to be some "park sprag rollers" and adjacent to those is the guide bracket. It says either (depending again on the text vs the figure) to remove the "rod" or shows the use of a screwdriver to push the "rollers" from the guide bracket, and then the valve body should come off. It also says to turn the manual valve lever (the shift rod) fully clockwise to "ease the removal". I hope this is helpful to you. I could xerox and postal mail you these pages from me '98 manual for the 604/41TE in the minivan if that would help.
Could you be jammed up because of the parking pawl mechanism? Did you try pushing the vehicle back/forth to the limit of motion with a helper trying to move the shift lever? I will look for a drawing that shows that rod and will get back if I find and can describe it. Once that rod is removed the valve body should come off. Other than that I can't think of anything else.
Roland
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