I was turning it the right way. . I got it. It just took more force than I expected. I took a quick look tonight and will look more in depth tomorrow but I couldn't figure out the bent thing your talking about. The arm of the pedal? Oh- and sorry to hijack the thread.
The bent "thing" that I'm referring to is the black damper which would be on the right side of the tilt mechanism. One end of the damper threads into the lower part of the tilt assembly.