It sure is a PITA! We just did ours and found this out first hand.
The 7/8th wrench isn't working at all?? That's what we used. It's kinda tight but we used short turns of the wrench, it took a while to get it off. We worked from the top and underneath.
It took longer than an hour that's for sure. Quite a few swear words were flying around too.
