Lower unit lube oil leak

I have a 1978 Johnson 3-cylinder 70HP outboard and after this last time I took it out I came home and as I was flushing it I noticed quite a bit of gear oil running out between the prop and the lower unit "torpedo" housing. I took the prop off and I can't really see where the oil is coming out but I did notice that the peice in the housing just in front of the prop has 2 bolt holes one on top and one on bottom. Neither one of these has a bolt in it. could the oil be coming from there? I ordered a new oil seal and o-ring for the shaft but if those bolts rattled out then I may just need to replace those. If not are there any tricks to removing the seal and o-ring? Please help I have people coming over to fish next weekend!

Re: Lower unit lube oil leak

Are you sure it's lower unit oil and not unburnt oil from the fuel mixture?
Those bolt holes are to install a puller to remove the bearing housing, which you have to do to replace the prop shaft seals.

Re: Lower unit lube oil leak

Thanks for the reply! It is possible that it could be unburnt oil it just seemed like it was an awful lot of it and I'm only running a 50:1 ratio of johnson red oil mix. Is there a way to tell which one it is? It is a really grey color and has the consistency of snot which turns to black when the water evaporates out of it. I inspected the seals and they look good. I haven't ran it with the prop and everything off of it for a closer look yet but I wasn't sure if that would hurt anything. I don't have alot of experience wrenching on outboards so I'm doing my best to learn.