I am spending too much time making no progress, gotta ask so I can move forward.
I drained lower unit gearcase oil and it was straight water for a while then thick goop following that. I am attempting to overhaul the lower unit and fix the issue. I can not get the drive shaft to lift up out of the lower unit. I have the thrust bearing and washers still on the drive shaft, the dont appear to need to come out. Everything else (bearing house, water pump assem) is removed from drive shaft.
I have the shift rod tightened and still in place, but all else is removed from shift rod(grommet, spacer, seal assy).
I have the the propeller all the way to the reverse gear removed. The pinion nut is as loose as it can get. There is not enough clearance between the pinion gear and the shifter clutch dog, for the nut to drop any further and be removed. I think this is due to the pinion gear not releasing from the driveshaft AND/OR the forward gear holding onto the pinion gear and again not allowing the drive shaft to come up any further to release the nut.
setscrew bearing is still in place. Does this need to be removed? I removed previously, but didnt seem to help. I cleaned and loctited the screw back in place.
Looking at the diagrams, there doesn't seem to be any regular maintenance items to replace(seals, Orings...etc) behind the pinion assembly, so considering calling it quits and replacing all seals and orings up to this point. All the gears have looked great IMO so far. If I should proceed how do I take this driveshaft out. I have tried heat and holding the driveshaft with one hand and tapping on the housing. Should I stop as there is not much benefit at this point to continue?
Thanks for any help and guidance!!