Hi Bass,
Well you most certainly have a mower there with a number of issues that will be affecting the machines performance.
I shall put all these issues into dot points.
1, The engine looks to be misaligned with the clutch.
2, The chassis frame has either had issues or still has issues due to the welding that's been done.
3, The Black plastic thrust pad is shickered.
4, Your Clutch body I feel is also a major contributor of your problems as it's an old flogged out alloy unit which someone has attempted to resurrect by adding the extra grub screws when the body should've been replaced and that was the original issue that's cracked the chassis which has ended up with the welding being done.
5, Your clutch body is not in the correct position on the Engines PTO shaft. It should be only around 2 to 4 mm's away from the engine block.
Now taking all this into consideration, my first plan would be to slowly pull the starter cord and watch how the clutch body revolves. It must rotate perfectly without any wobble in the body being evident. If any wobble exists then the clutch should be rendered as scrap metal.
Let me know how that goes before we go any further.
Cheers,
BB
