I did this a few months ago...probably spent a solid 30 minutes just on this one part. (I think I spent the last 10 minutes cursing the design.) There's just no way to get leverage on it, especially when lying on your back.
Doing the shifter bushing refresh made it tighter, but there's still some play...which is to be expected on a car w/over 100k miles I guess, but it still makes it difficult to execute a fast 1-3 shift.