...soooo... whut i done wuz,
...i went to the hardware store and got some stainless 10-32 hex head screws using the slotted screw as a reference. pretty expensive though, thirty two cents each

now i have much better leverage with a simple allen wrench.there still isn't a lot of room.
....
one thing that's guaranteed (at least for me) when doing a job like this is i'm gonna drop something which will go down past the stuffing box...
for that i got a small drop cloth which seems to help some.