I am having difficulty removing the gearbox top plate on a Meddings MF4 – I have removed everything above the plate including the two circlips (outer and inner) on both shafts, but when I lift the gearbox plate, the shafts do not want to detach. I assume this is because the roller bearings are a very tight fit on both the gear plate and the shafts – is this correct and if so what is the best way of getting them to detach? Thanks for any help, Adam

I do have the exploded parts diagram for M series Meddings drills and I am wondering if I should be trying to remove the selector shaft that is gripped by the selector lever and then just pull the whole gear assembly out attached to the top gear plate but to do so is not obviously possible since the selector shaft appears held firmly in place by a clamping bolt that is only accessible once the top plate is removed.