Vertical shaft removal

[davidwheeler]

Is there any particular trick to removing the vertical driveshaft from the block?   My engineer is having problems taking off the top gear.
It looks to me like a decent extractor and a tap from a hammer should do it.

[davidwheeler]

To answer my own question- I made up a simple extractor and applied it followed by a gentle tap with a hammer and off it came.  Once the crankshaft is out I shall just tap it down from above.