Is my wastegate wasted?

Hello all,

Got myself a 97 disco 1 a month back. First landy and loving it. Took the family on a the week camping/Road trip. Blanked the egr on my sisters driveway half way through. Tuned the smoke screw at a mates house, used the foot from a drum kit to replace the cover cap.

I was going to carry on with fuel tuning and thought wastegate adjustment may come into it.
Before doing this I thought I'd best check thewastegate. Uh oh. I grabbed the actuator bar with some long nosed pliers, and can't shift it. This could be because the pliers are long, the access is awkward and the leverage is against me. Or it could be stuck.

How much force should it take to shift? Does it move left (towards exhaust) or right (towards inlet)? Any tricks to get it moving again? How soon will my engine explode if I don't fix it? I did 1000 miles since I bought the car, half motorway with a family and a full load. Would it have gone pop already if it was really stuck?

Thanks in advance folks,
Robin

I think from memory it pushes out if that makes sence, there should be some resistance but it should move freely, if it was seized like mine was then it won't move at all

It's a real pig to move with the whole lot still on the engine. Mine was stuck solid but was on the bench anyway so it was easy to free up. A 16mm spanner fits nicely if you can twist it with some mole grips you may get away with it on the car.