It's really not hard to do. Here's how:
1. Disassemble the gun down to it's major components.
2. Put several fired cases in the cylinder (to secure the ejector from turning and possibly shearing off the locator pins when unscrewing the rod)
3. Hold the cylinder in your left hand, ejector rod facing up.
4. Use a pair of small vise grips and clamp them around the knurled end of the ejector rod. Don't clamp it so tight that it digs into the rod unless you don't care about reusing the rod. You might want to wrap a bit of duct tape around it to protect it from the teeth of the vise grip.
I actually have a tool that is made specifically to do this job without ripping up the knurled portion of the rod. It is made for S&W's but works fine for my Rugers
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/10070 ... -revolvers.
If you do a lot of work on DA revolvers, it can be a lifesaver. However as long as you use just enough pressure to grip the ejector rod, you should be ok.
5. Turn the ejector rod clockwise to loosen it, it has left hand threads.
6. Once loose, turn it out with your fingers and remove.
7. To reinstall the old (or install a new rod if needed), turn counter clockwise to tighten. Some people like to put a drop of blue Loctite on the threads to insure it doesn't loosen on it's own (they can over time with a lot of shooting).
8. Test (spin the cylinder while holding the crane and if all ok, reassemble.
That's it, pretty easy to do. Then, you can roll the old rod to see where it's bent and try to straighten it if you want to reuse it.
Myself, I would not push the rod in and grab the star or the shaft, you don't want to mess that up. Also, the shaft that the star is on has a flat side on it and you can see that the center of the cylinder is cut for that flat. That, and the locator pins are to keep the star and shaft from changing positions whenever ejecting the empties.