Help with Steering Shaft Removal

[skyphix]

Hey everyone,
Now that the LS/Trans swap is driveable its time to address some maintenance/repair items on the truck itself. This one has been pretty stubborn. Replacing the lower steering column bearing, I've got the bearing kit here, but can't for the life of me get the steering shaft off of the column

See the arrow below;



Where that arrow points - I removed the pinch bolt, and the bulky section with the rubber seal moves down but the shaft itself doesn't collapse at all and I don't want to hammer on it too hard for fear of tearing the rubber boot. Is this just a case of a stuck shaft where I need to drill out/melt out the plastic pins or am I missing something?

Trying to avoid unhooking at the steering box if I can, just because those bolts are all boogered up and ultimately I want to replace the entire setup, so this is just to get it driving a little better.


Thanks in advance
Eric