Difficulty pulling Power Unit on Tohatsu MFS 6C

I'm trying to remove the ower Unit from my 5-year old MFS 6C. I've got the service manual and have followed all steps. I get to "lift power unit to remove" and it won't come out. I can get my fingers down to the parting gasket on one side and it moves a little when attemptng to lift the unit, but it just doesn't come free. I've also tried dropping the Lower Unit, and it also will not come free. Is this all just the drive shaft spline bound tight in the crank case head after 5 years? Is there any trick to geting the Power Unit released? ( I had dopped the lower unit 2 years ago to service the water pump and it came off fine, with only minor tinkering to get the shaft spline back in ) Thanks for any advice!

Probably a stuck spline. Make sure the shift linkage is disconnected, of course. Then you need wedges and patience to drop the LU. In the future, grease the drive shaft splines when reassembling.