I hear ya about the price of the new rod bearing…I’ve never seen alot of “wear” on these things, usually get ruined from rust… It is possible that you left out a needle though, that would make it sloppy in this area…It’s not tough to pull off the intake and get in there to push the rod around on the crank in an effort to detect excess slop…
As far as the gearcase…You mention the oil was OK when you changed it, so it is very unlikely that gears are damaged…But, anything is possible….You could try removing the gearcase, then starting the engine up in a bucket of water (to quiet it a bit so you can hear the powerhead)… This might help rule out gearcase/spline issues. Keep in mind, there is no oring on the driveshaft on these engines, so crank splines get destroyed/worn pretty often….
PS: Don’t rule out that recoil too quickly, it is easy enough to run the engine without it to see if the noise goes away….
