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I went to the lumber yard, and for 5 bucks purchased a length of 2by6. Screwed it together, and drilled a hole of suitable size for the disassembly of this shaft. Note that the wheels on the jack are not supporting the force. A section of 2by6 is directly under the jack so that the jack does not try to move while under load.
I push the shaft up effortlessly with the car jack, and the spring on this shaft compresses. The split washers appear, and it is a simple process to pull the split washers and disassemble the shaft. These two split washers, and the full washer behind them, were the cause of all that "second gear" grief in the 1983 and 1984 model years. I had replaced these split washers almost 100,000km ago when my second gear had failed and thought it might be a good idea to change them again. There was no need. Less that a thou had worn off these washers in those 100,000km (by comparison, the original split washers had worn half through in the first 105,000km, causing the second gear failure).
I have now replaced the bearing on this shaft, re-installed the spring and gear/bearing (the gear and upper bearing are a single unit and do not need to be disassembled). Apply a little force with the car jack to compress the spring, insert the washer and split washers. Release the car jack and the shaft is ready to go!!
This same press was used to remove the failed bearing behind the clutch, and re-install the new one. The forces on this operation are significant - I would guess a thousand pounds force to push the bearing onto the shaft. While I replaced many items as part of this project, this one bearing was the only item that absolutely required replacement.
I continued by assembling the engine!