Help! How in the heck do you remove a 69-72 Blazer Rear Hatch Handle????

[kna4977]

I just purchased a replacement rear hatch handle from Brother's to replace the one that is on mine that is very pitted, but I can't seem to get the old one off. As the service manual said, remove the plate at the bottom, remove the ring holding the latch in, remove the 2 screws on the outside, this is where I ran into trouble. I ended up having to drill these out and re-tap the screw holes. The problem is, I can't get the housing that has the spring mechanism and the piece that the 2 rods for each side latch apart from the latch handle itself. Can anyone give me any pointers on what to do? Also, the clips that hold the rods that run to the side latches broke. How is the best way to fix these????