can someone give me a heads up on what to expect when tearing a lower unit apart?

I have a buddy, (don't we all) who needs help tearing apart his lower unit and making it water tight again. It is off of a 1971 Johnson 60hp with electric shift. It leaks water into the LU, even after replacing the seals at the oil fill and vent holes. And it probably is due for a new impeller, so we are just gonna tear the whole thing apart and re do the seals and stuff. It also clunks in gear, which makes me think the clutch dog is wore out, so that is another reason to tear is apart. So.......my question is, what does it take to tear the gears and everythig out and everything apart. I did one a few years ago, on a manual shift, but I dont remember how I did it. Does it take specialty tools to remove the drive gears and all that stuff down there? Is there any difference in removing a electric shift LU than a manual shift LU, other than there wont be a shift linkage to take apart?..................now that I think about it, the other one I took apart a few years ago was easy because the bottom end just had some bolts to take out and the whole bottom came off, exposing the gears if I remember correctly. I think it was a 1972 johnson 35hp manual shift. So I have never taken one apart where you have to take off the prop and everyhing behind it to get to the gears. Does it require any specil tools like spanner wrenches or stuff like that. Thank for the info.

Re: can someone give me a heads up on what to expect when tearing a lower unit apart?

The first thing to do is get an OEM Factory Service Manual for it. To many things to screw up if you never had one apart.

Re: can someone give me a heads up on what to expect when tearing a lower unit apart?

That is a really complicated lower unit. It is much different than a manual shift unit and will be very expensive if something get messed up.

Re: can someone give me a heads up on what to expect when tearing a lower unit apart?

so does it require any special tools?????????? We arent out anything if we attempt it, because we have 2 replacements found for $150 each, but there is no guarantee that those two are any better than the one we already have, so we might as well see what is inside this one, right???

Re: can someone give me a heads up on what to expect when tearing a lower unit apart?

Here's what's inside it:

Re: can someone give me a heads up on what to expect when tearing a lower unit apart?

You dont need to tear it down to reseal it... and that models does clunk when it shifts and if rpm is to high it will be worse.