Yep, ended up having to use a flexible shaft 3/8 extension with a bolt remover, a little heat, and off it came. Built up a handy dandy stand since i wasn't keen on lifting that by the dipstick hole either. Was easy enough for me to pull that lower unit out by myself.
I may have, and I'm no boat mechanic as stated, found the leak... See attached video.
I'm a bit afraid of what that's going to look like when I pull that off of there. Somebody put gobs of gasket/rtv on there which will make it fun to remove anyway. Maybe one of you will say, "oh no, that's how they always look"...but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I see the u-joints are rusted too, so there's definitely been water up there. The splines on the drive shaft are good, I didn't see any water up in the hole the shaft came out of, and there was a big blob of grease up in there. Makes me wonder if they packed in excess grease to keep any water than came by that RTV'd up mess from getting into the gimble bearing. I need to check that yet to make sure it moves smoothly.
Anybody know what that seal/gasket/area is called?