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I have 4 or 5 of the West Bend/Chrysler 5hp Viking/Sea King. All of them have immaculate powerheads… I believe they’re pristine because the lower unit rear propshaft popped and that was the end of the motor.
The motors I have that don’t have epoxy are missing chunks of the gearcase where the c-clip resides. I used to think it was a freeze problem, but after looking at a dozen units in the process of falling apart, but I believe the cause is repeated high-rpm shifting causes the aluminum case to fatigue and eventually pop off the lower unit along with the bearing carrier, gears and all the other oily bits.. If you have any of the metal left that can be used as a template to use aluminum weld to build out the missing spots, maybe you can find a way to hold the rear carrier some other way or have someone machine what gets built up using the aluminum rod.
A word to anyone with a 64-66 5/6/9.6, inspect the gearcase near the rear carrier and weld up any cracks now before it’s too late.