Alright guys, I promised an update. Got the drive off today with the help of a friend. Oddly enough, everything looked good with the U-joint, splines, etc. No rust or twisting of shaft/coupler. We saw some dried grease on the shaft that was hardened (almost like a fourth O-ring). We're thinking that's what held the drive from coming off easily. However, we did chink up the plastic fitting on the gear lube fitting. Now my question is, can that fitting be replaced without taking off the bell housing? The cable moves freely fore and aft but the plastic "cap" is severely cracked.

Update- I got the drive back on. It was hard to get back on as well ( see earlier post). A friend and I ended up borrowing a make-shift alignment tool. Turns out the gimbal bearing was out of alignment enough to prohibit the shaft from inserting. We put the tool in, centered it, and woolah (ics) the drive went on fairly easily.