Re: Gearcase tool
Dear Chum1 here is the result of opening my 850 LU, the shop worked on it for 2+ hrs and put two cracks in it but it didn't come out. Well it was useless like that so I took my hand grinder and carefully cut it in half.
I had to see what was going on inside - the gears, bearings etc are perfect; the only worn parts are seals and the shift cam. I have a source for another complete one.
Jimmeney Christmas looks like they snapped the arms on the carrier bearing too!!, I would be highly upset as i think this could have been avoided, the book says to use a slide hammer but heat and steady pressure is the way to go for this.
My 850 was a salt water engine and there was no way it was coming apart without heat,( Learned this from and thanks to Chris from Australia)
Hopefully you found a good deal on another lower and can use all the internals over again ( except for the carrier), hopefully they have the right tools to make sure the pinion gear lines up with the drive gear correctly, I have heard it could be destroyed in short order if there not meshed and shimmed right
Wish the best of luck to you, its cases like this that i know i can do better.