How else are you going to get to the rear retaining nut that holds the cable in?

I guess you could lift it way up and pull the shift cable through the transom, but I think you would risk bending it.

Either way, would only take about 2 minutes to remove the hinge pins assuming they aren't corroded.

He means gimbal ring I believe.

Yeah - you're probably right.

RING - NO
BH - YES

You can sneak the cable out without pulling the bell housing.(Yes, Seaford is correct....it's called a bell housing) You just lift it up a little and use a line wrench on the nut.
Eddie

Its slotted at the bottom,,,, you can get a wrench in there

Man - that sounds unpleasant relative to just taking the hinge pins out, but where there's a will I guess there's a way...