Congratulations. You are about to begin a long journey. For the drives you only need special tools if you were going to disassemble and rebuild them. As far as inspecting them you can remove the top cover to inspect the upper gears. Then like you said drain the lube and see how it looks. Those drives take 3 quarts of lube in the drive and 1 in the reservoir on the transom plate. You can check out the u-joints also but that's about it. Be sure to grease u-joints before putting the drives back on. Did you get transmissions in the deal? If so which ones are they? Borg-Warner or Merc Trans ll. Keep us posted. Good Luck !!!

Ya they are borg warner... I won't pick them up for another week or two but i am stoked!! just got back from the poker run... and i am ready to dive into this boat... (so is the wife!):evilb: