Advice on removing clutch pushrod bolt

[FreelanceWizard]

This may come off as a bit of an idiot question, but believe me, I have some more tricksy ones about this car once I get this fixed.

The car: '96 240SX, 105k miles, manual transmission (of course )

The little u-shaped clip that connects my clutch pedal to the master cylinder pushrod broke last night. Both prongs snapped at essentially the same time, leaving only a small metal square and the retaining bolt behind it on the pushrod. The clutch hydraulics are fine; if I manually work the pushrod (not an easy thing!), I can get the car to shift just fine. The master cylinder's fluid level is fine, and there are no leaks that I can see. I think the poor clip was just suffering from a case of metal fatigue.

Anyway, I have yet to figure out how to get the retaining bolt and that little square of steel off the pushrod so I can replace the clip. Does anyone have any advice on how to do this? I've tried holding the pushrod with vise grips and trying to work the bolt with a crescent wrench, but that isn't working -- either the rod turns, or I can't get enough torque on the bolt to loosen it in such a confined space.

Before I try a penetrant like Liquid Wrench, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to handle this problem. I know people have gotten the remains off the pushrod before, but I can't for the life of me figure out how one would.

[InsanityInc]

Why not just remove the master cylinder? Seems you'll have to replace it anyway, since I don't think you can just buy that metal piece.

[FreelanceWizard]

I think you can get just the pushrod with the clip, but I also have access to a metal shop and could get a new clip made.

It just seems like such a pain to remove/replace the master cylinder and do a bleed of the system for that one little part, though. That's why I'm hoping I don't have to.

[InsanityInc]

I think you can get just the pushrod with the clip, but I also have access to a metal shop and could get a new clip made.

It just seems like such a pain to remove/replace the master cylinder and do a bleed of the system for that one little part, though. That's why I'm hoping I don't have to.

Yeah, that retarded little damper box makes bleeding it a *****. Removing/replacing the cylinder is actually pretty painless in a 240 though. Also, even if you get the retaining nut loose, you'll have problems taking the fork off the rod. I'm pretty sure it's designed to not come off that way, as whenever I've had to adjust someone's MC close to the end of the rod it ended up being very hard to turn.