Just picked up a Sebring, in pieces, with a Morini M1 engine, rebuilt by the previous owner, but not installed.
I noticed the output gear (dunno what its called in Morini terms) #80 was absolutely impossible to spin by hand. Thought hmm that cant be right. I popped off the clutch cover, and removed the clutch and bell. I was able to turn the countershaft? #52 and output shaft #80 but veryyyy difficult.
Decided to mount and run the engine and see what the deal was. Runs fine but sounds like an engine that needs bearings. Takes very high RPM to get the output gear spinning. Obviously not right.
Today I opened the engine back up. As soon as I loosened the case half bolts from the magneto side, the output gear was no longer stuck, and spun well. So what's the deal? I have no experience with these engines and I've seen some mention of shimming. Is it possible the case halves were simply torqued too tight?