Cobra failed pressure test

Looking for some assistance in repairing my cobra's lower unit. It's a 1989 behind a Chevy 4.3. Last fall I took the drive off, and stored it in the basement emptied of all fluid. I had a vibration problem last season, and trued up an engine alignment issue before reinstalling the drive. I also replaced the water pump impeller as its was a couple of years old. Anyway, after running down the lake with no problems, I lowered the drive in my driveway, only to notice a little puddle of 80 weight under the drive. Pulled the prop to investigate, and found it looked like it was coming from around the carrier bearing. I then pulled the drive and put air pressure (about 8lbs on the midlevel fill hole)
I have soapy suds bubbles, and audible air coming out of the lower unit just above the bolt in the 2 o' clock position holding in the bearing housing. Just to see if the bolts would even move, I screwed three of them out just fine, the one on the upper right (2'oclock) position felt loose at the initial turn of the ratchet. I tried to tighten it back up, to no avail. I think it's stripped. It won't even back out.
Could this loosness cause the seal to leak, or is the seal actually an o-ring around the carrier structure sealing it to the housing?
What to do??
Sorry about the long post. Oh...looks like no water in the oil, So I didn't do a vacuum test.

Re: Cobra failed pressure test

Ok, I made some progress on the 4 bolts holding the bearing carrier in place three came out a little rough and all of them had the last 1/4 of threads just a little out of shape. I was able to clean them up with a 1/14 by 28thread die. The fourth bolt in the upper right position was completely stripped in the same 1/4" area as the other three. Just above this is where the leak seemed to be occurring. I threaded in one of the good bolts into this spot and it seemed to snug down nice and tight. So I will replace it tomorrow, with a new stainless bolt and nylon washer to see if the oil will then stay in the case.
Does anyone know if the o-ring is compressed down with these four bolts, or is the o-ring on the outer portion of the bearing carrier (like on the upper gear case bearing carrier)??
Thanks in advance for any assistance!!

Re: Cobra failed pressure test

Long story short...it's fixed. I saw a picture of someone pulling the bearing carrie out with a gear puller and 2 short peices of chain, and I improvised the same rig.
The carrier popped right out, no ding, no scratches on the shaft, no damage whatsoever. Picked up a nre o-ring, seals, 4 bolts with seals, prop bearings, gasket sealant, and drive gasket kit. Drove out the old bearings and seals with some sockets, cleaned up the carrier, and drove in the new stuff. After the carrier was reinstalled I was able to put 10psi on the drive for 1 1/2 hours...so I call it fixed.
I could be done without even taking the drive off the boat, if it's in good enough shape like mine. "trailer queen only run in fresh water".

Hope this helps somebody...