Hi Grumpy. It was more wondering if the gears separate off the shafts. There is a small amount of play in the bushes, I would say half a mm front to back in the horizontal shaft bushes. The gears are quite worn but still work. The main problem is that the horizontal gear touches the back of the engine block on full lock. I had a look at the old motor and it has the same rub marks. The previous owner didn't bother to rectify it. Funnily enough a deep gouge developing in an alloy engine case concerns me.
It would appear the deck has to be dropped to remove the vertical shaft.
For all the effort of removing the engine and deck I'm thinking if the parts are not expensive, you would replace the gears when doing the bushes.
I took the mower for a run on Saturday and it cut through 40cm grass nicely and the new engine ran a treat so I guess a few more dollars is with it.
