86 Spider: how to get the axle shaft out?

[Chisheng Huang <cph@domain.elided>]

How difficult is it to take an axle shaft off a 1986 Spider Veloce?  
My shop manual says to unscrew and remove the four laminate lock nuts
and associated nuts holding the shoe-holders and splash shield to the
axle pipe.  After this, just "Slide off the complete axle-shaft - brake disc
- - shoe-holder -splash shield assembly."  Well, I found out that "Slide off" 
was quite an understatement last night.  I grabbed and pulled, with all my 
might, the round plate [*note*] to which we attach a wheel but failed to get 
the whole assembly out a single millimeter:(  Is this normal?  Could anybody
suggest some way to get it out? 

Thanks a lot.

Chisheng Huang
L.A., CA, U.S.A.

*note*: I already removed the brake disc by this time.

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