My Singer 9800 has its top vertical shaft bevel gear broken. Is it correct that in order to replace this top vertical gear, I need to remove the horizontal shaft/gear first?

I've managed to loosen the set screw for the broken vertical gear, through the opening for the stitch length control dial/assembly. After removing belt pulley and feed cam disks from the bottom, I cannot pull the vertical shaft downward to dislodge the broken top gear. This seems to be validated by the 2800 series (similar to 9800) service manual, which I found online. That service manual suggests to pull the vertical shaft upward to remove it.

However, I wonder if there is a way to avoid removing the horizontal shaft to replace the top vertical gear.

Jamie, August 2015