I removed my outdrives on my 1997 Vista for the first time last year. Thats 16 years of not being removed and they were definitely stuck/corroded on big time
It took me and a helper with pry bars and a ratcheting come-along to get the drives off. The port side was MUCH more stuck than the stbd. I wish I had taken pictures of the corrosion that had formed between the outdrive upper housing and the piece that hangs off the transom. And my boat didnt spend any of its life in the water, plus we are in 100% freshwater (Great Lakes).
With that being said, removing and re-installing the outdrive is definitely a challenging proposition for 1 guy - Esp. reinstalling it. Doing it myself, with the help of a friend saved me big $$ but I dont trust myself replacing the bellows on my own. It took me what seemed to be an hour to get my port side outdrive re-installed. I finally went and adjusted the trailer jack to get a better angle and it worked. But I was nervous there for a minute..... thoughts of calling a mechanic $$$$ motivated me to try a little harder, LOL!
Anyways, after the original owner not removing or greasing the u-joints for 16 years, there wasnt much to report. I bought the boat with 90 hours on it. There was still grease in the u-joints, and they moved easily/freely. I greased the living hell out of them though. I also greased the gimbal bearing with the outdrives OFF so I could turn the gimbal by hand and distribute the grease. I also got to watch it push out the old grease visually, which made me feel better. Oh, speaking of that, on my 1 u-joint, there was rusty grease coming out of 1 of the caps. I greased the living hell out of that one too.
When I re-installed the drives, I took light grit sandpaper and sanded the sealing surfaces very lightly, just to get the corrosion off then I coated it lightly with that OMC Triple C grease stuff. Im expecting them to come off much easier this year!
Other than that, take your time and either build a stand or have a (strong) helper. My best advice.