I doubt that it's actually dirt preventing you from turning it. Unless you have the tool from ground control to adjust the height (which my GC's and both of my friends' did not come with), if you try to turn the perch the sleeve will automatically spin with it. You basically just need to create a system of holding the perch with something while turning the sleeve. I used a Gator Grip (9.99 at Wal-Mart, similar to the tool used to tighten oil filters) to hold the perch still and a wrench to grip and turn the sleeve.