Removing manual gear box, how to deal with gear stick lever? See Pic

[MisterCruiser]

Fellow cruisers, I'd really appreciate it if someone could just advise me on this.

I'm about to drop the gear box, everything is removed but I'm unsure about the gear lever, please see pic.
Can I leave the big gear stick in it's position and be possible to remove the gear box with it left attached? Or do I need to undo the 4 bolts and unbolt it from the top of the gear box? Or does it just pull out with force? I'd like to leave it attached if possible so as to disturb less stuff, but I need confirmation from some one first. I'm not sure if I'll have enough clearance to get the gear box off the engine if leaving the gear lever attached as it is in the pic?

Does the gear lever come apart more than in the pic, does the black handle piece unscrew from the metal lower part?

Will the black piece separate from the exposed metal piece at this point?

 

[MisterCruiser]

I removed the gear stick off of the gear box prior to removal in the end.
Just in case anyone is searching and reads this thread in the future, the big gear lever is straight forward to remove, just unbolt the 4 bolts and the lever just lifts out, it has a ball-joint on the end and they're are no springs or anything unlike the Transfer box little lever.