Allis 185 Shift Lever Removal Question

My shift lever on my 185 broke in two just above the roll pin that retains the dust cover, spring etc.  I would like to remove just the shift lever in order to have it welded.  Can the shift lever be removed without removing the control cover that it runs through?

Thanks for the info, I was not sure if the snap ring retained the lever or not.   Right now I cannot get the roll pin out because it appears to be rusted in.  I don't have any pin punches so I plan to get some tomorrow after work and give it another try next weekend (I am sort of a weekend farmer LOL).  So will the lever just go back into place correctly/easily in the rod/fork arrangement given that I do not allow the tractor to move to disturb their location?  Sorry for the follow up question, but I am a bit apprehensive about prying this thing out of where it is. 

Thanks again.

Thank you very much Lynn for your detailed reply, yes I thought about welding it in place, I just did not know if there were any parts that might not be able to take the heat below it. Based on what you said there should not be not a problem with the heat.  

I currently have the tractor in 1st or 2nd (cannot remember where the hydraulic shift was), and there is enough shifter rod sticking up to allow me to put a pair of vice grips on it to shift it to neutral if needed.  Should I put it in neutral?

The break is right at the bend where it begins to goes forward toward the engine (as you know it is sort of a Z shape), so if I do use a sleeve it will need to be oversized to take in account the bend, so I am not sure how much structure I could get from doing it.  Alternatively I could make an angle from two pieces of pipe to get the structure I need, just have not decided what to do quite yet.

I also thought about try to find a NOS or salvage part (the shifter has been welded before by a previous owner), but I have not had a chance to look around much since it just happened yesterday morning.  I did however look a little online last night and managed to find one on ebay, but it is about $175 including the cover plate.  At that price I thought seriously about trying to do another repair on it.

Thank you again for your reply it really helped.

Thanks for the welding advice.  I am going to need to do some grinding also to get rid of the old weld so I hopefully can get better penetration than the original had.