I believe we are lifting the valve out of the body. The body, as I see it in the diagram, is the section above the handle with the 3 ports that go in from pool, and back out thru backwash or to the pool again. One of the things I did find said to remove the handle and put a board under it (the casing) then push up like using a lever. I do see in the diagram that it might work, but it's hard to reach to put the extension back on later. Of course, I've been warned that it might loosen or break the pipes if we do that. We haven't opened it up like this in the 10 years we've been here, so that could be very likely. I want to take out the part that moves with the handle and opens the different ports.