Saving Old Seagulls

Have tested my tc 102 in the water. It started out alright, but got consistantly slower.I found that the drive shaft tube, and the gear lever became very hot. Stripped it down and could not initially find anything wrong. Then I found I could move the flywheel up and down approx 3-4 mm due to the locating screw not being tight enough. That in turn moves the shaft in the lower bush. Could hot gasses bypass this bush to heat the affected parts? Thanks in advance!

Where does the hot gas come from & which locating screw?

Are you running 25:1 or 10:1 fuel mix ?

I'm not saying I've seen or felt hot gasses coming out: I'm just trying to find a reason why the gear lever and drive tube would get so hot that I can barely touch them. the locating screw I mentioned is the one that prevents the flywheel from moving out of timing position, under the base plate.

I'm running on 10:1 fuel

That sounds like friction from the bottom main bearing, might be slack or bent crank.

Crankshaft end float of between (50 to 100 thou) is a standard feature .

Check out John Williams or ebay a good 102 crankcase & crank won't be expensive.

Ok, thanks Charles.

I'll wager some of your crankshaft will have turned blue, from the heat, has anyone got a pic to illustrate?