1987 Johnson 9.9 Driveshaft removal question

[FiBerOpTiK]

My dad just gave me his 9.9 Johnson PN J10RLCUE. He was using it on his larger boat, hence the long shaft motor but he no longer needed it. I am going to be using it on my smaller 12 footer and want to convert to short shaft. It has the spacer bolted into the leg, so it is possible to remove and shorten the leg.
I know I need to swap out the drive shaft, upper shift rod and also the water tube to the shorter ones. I just purchased a drive shaft off ebay PN 329510.
The question I have is how do I remove the drive shaft from the lower unit? I'd done impeller replacements before and am pretty familiar with that, however the drive shaft didnt need to come out of the lower unit, only the powerhead. Do I have to completely disassemble the gear case or can you just pull the drive shaft out? Also there are seals around the driveshaft where it goes into the lower unit, will those need to be removed and replaced?
Thank you

 

[racerone]

You may need to replace the LOWER shift rod.----It screws out.------Driveshaft simply pulls out and you slide in the replacement.

 

[FiBerOpTiK]

racerone, thank you for the reply. You are correct about the shift rod, the upper shift rod is the same on both shaft lengths, the lower shift rod is shorter on the short shaft. I've done alot of reading and didnt see mention of anyone saying the drive shaft just pulled out. I do recall reading people mentioning a "keeper" on the driveshaft inside the gear box, but that must be for other engine models.
Thanks again