Top cowling removal on 2003 40 hp Mercury

[tallred]

When I press the lever down to remove the top cowling, it does not release. (This is not my first motor, I have just never had this problem.) I certainly do not want to break the cowling but know of no other way to gain access. If anyone has a solution could you please help? Please disregard... as soon as I typed this after working on it for a couple hours, I went back and applied an additional amount of pressure. It finally released.

[boats.net]

Probably need to clean and grease latch.