I perched awkwardly to find crack (8)
I believe the answer is:
decipher
'crack' is the definition.
(I know that crack can be written as decipher)
'i perched awkwardly' is the wordplay.
'awkwardly' indicates an anagram.
'i'+'perched'='iperched'
'iperched' is an anagram of 'DECIPHER'.
'to find' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for decipher that I've seen before include "Break code" , "Figure out" , "Convert code to ordinary language" , "Unscramble" , "Explain" .)