How to remove the rod to the new door lock actuator?

You are correct that the actuator will most likely break. Where did you get this one from?

I show that some of suppliers sell this with the rod attached.

Take a look at this link and the picture below:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/honda,2007,cr-v,2.4l+l4,1434521,body+&+lamp+assembly,door+lock+actuator,13257

However, the ones without the rod are cheaper so if we try to remove it, we need to be careful.

The issue we have is there is no process in the manual that shows how to do this so we are going to have to figure it out. Can you get closer pictures of the rod (end attached to the actuator) so that we can see what needs to be released so that we can remove it?

Thanks