Michael the picture of your cocking rod is blurred some and I cannot see if it is staked. What I would do is take a stout flat head screwdriver and get behind the lifter and see if you can prying it off. If that works the cocking rod will slide out and you can inspect it to see if it is not slightly bent and look to see if that passage is clean by running a Q tip with some Hoppe's or other cleaning fluid.
If you have trouble getting the lifter off then try spraying some cleaner through the cocking rod hole with a patch near the lifter to catch any debris that might be in there.
Let us know how you make out.