67 A/C heater box rebuild and install help

Ok, so Im trying to get the ac unit dismantled, and in the mopar muscle mag write up it says to pull on evaporator control probe...see my pic, it's a long probe and goes thru a grommet on the side of the box. I tried pullin and tuggin on that bugger pretty good, but no go!! Any suggestions/ideas?? To be honest this thing looks pretty good and am thinking bout just leaving the evaporator in the box and maybe just having evap tested to make sure it works. Any ideas how to get the probe out??