thanks for the advice guys, ended up taking it down the mower shop...
$300 later the motor is running pretty well and the clutch issue is sorted.
The mechanic put a horible kill switch on top of the motor itself which I'm not real happy about. I will post some photos soon of it.
Anyway I have started to put it apart to respray and clean it. Really suprised for something of that age how easily you can undo the nuts and bolts! must have been built well back then.
