All six nuts are off or I should say four of them. Left the last two nuts on with only a couple of threads just incase the outdrive gods granted my wish and it broke free. I can clearly see it has separated. The bottom seem has about 1/4" gap and the top of the seem has about 1/32" gap. If tried squirting penatrating oil in the coupler and gimbal. Had a partner bump the starter a few times to see if that would help. Tried pulling on the top of drive with a piece of wood at the same time. I'm down to building a jig that will put pulling pressure on the drive as I try to tap it with a hammer. Open to any and all suggestions The weather has just recently changed to beautiful and the longer it stays that way the more frustrated I become

Good news, got the outdrive off with some advice on another thread. Used the tilt cylinders and a block of wood between the top of the outdrive and the gimbal ring. Just bumped the tilt a little bit at a time then went back and rocked it back and forth and kept repeating this cycle until she broke free. Had water in the bellow and the gimbal bearing rusted right onto the input shaft. Needles to say I don't have to worry about pulling the gimbal bearing because it came out with the drive. Just need to get it off the shaft now The teeth look great on the input shaft and coupler. Hoping it didn't damage the coupler or throw it out of wack somehow. A few more hundie and couple more nights of working on her and we should be back out in the sunshine. The beer sure tastes a lot different at the end of a project than the do at the begining. I can finally get a good nights sleep. Thanks everybody on this website for your help. I will keep you posted. Maybe my next thread will be something a little better like how to throw down some better numbers on a pass

Thanks again.......

Have a final update:

After drive was pulled noticed coupler had a pretty good wobble to it. You could actually watch the alignment tool (ITS) touch the inside of the gimbal bearing the entire time the engine was rotating. It looked like 1/4" out of round in reference to the gimbal. Pulled the engine and put a new coupler on, parts houses don't give those away either Did have to tweak the engine a little to the port side (1/4") to get it to center on the gimbal. I didn't think the rear engine mounts would give me any play due to design but it did give me what I needed. Anyway, long story short she is all buttoned up with new coupler, gimbal bearing, seal, bellows and no more Y-pipe which makes things in the back much better to access. She runs great so far and am very happy to have had a great knowledge base like this forum to help me

Thank you..........

I would just take it for another slow run. If the boat has sat its going to burn off some grease and oil. Whoever stored it last might have sprayed down the engine with oil. I mean everytime i leave something for just the winter it smokes and spits and rumbles. re-grease everything, Wd-40 some moving parts. Dont forget alll the grease points on the lower unit. Sounds like she may need just a good run