Any tricks of the trade so to speak, on how to split the cases. I have removed all the bolts and almost all of the gears on both sides. I have tried using screwdrivers to pry in between the cases and it starts to move, but it doesn't want to come completely apart.

did you get all the screws? there is one that is under the flywheel and one that is in the center of the case plus all the ones around the premiter

I feel like a noob now! I don't know how, but I missed the bolt on the middle of the case. Once that was out, the cases came right apart. Then the crank fell right out too. Looks like I was right about the main bearings being bad, they were completely rounded out on the edge of one side, and started to round off the other side

we all got to learn some time. Glad you got it apart. the crank should stay in one side and the trans in the other

The tranny did stay in place, but the crank fell right out. The new bearings will fix that though.