BlasterBoy

Ride: 2004 Blaster. Symptom: Clutch stopped engaging without much warning. What I know: A teardown of the clutch basket revealed everything looked good on the basket side. However, the ball between the adjusting bolt and the pushrod was missing. Worse, the "bearing surface" on the throwout pivot rod is chewed up pretty badly. Worst, the pushrod seems stuck inside the case, and nothing I can think of will dislodge it. I tried a shot of compressed air down the throwout / pivot rod hole; no joy. Tried snaking semi-rigid plastic down from the pivot rod end, to push the pushrod out, but the pushrod seems jammed very hard. I can, with some effort, slide the pushrod to the left, from the clutch side, and with some effort, slide it to back to the right (basket side), using the pivot arm, but the push rod inside the case is not by any definition, "moving freely." Seems like the push rod has become warped / bent / something inside the housing, and I can't think of any way to dislodge it. Help? Tips? Pointers? Commiseration? I'm completely out of good ideas.