Hra 215 (gvx140) bound up, hard to pull and knocking after replacing oil pan gasket

the title kind of says it all. So I recently picked up an old hra215 for free. Cleaned the carb and it fired right up and ran like brand new (better than my 4 year old Husqvarna) only thing was the self propelled wasn't working. Come to find out the pin that held the gear to the drive shaft had come undone inside the engine case. So I pulled it all apart, inspected and cleaned it up. Then reinstalled the drive gear to the drive shaft and put it all back together. Even applying Molly engine assembly grease on critical areas. But I used old one minute rtv instead of a gasket which because it was old never hardened before I torqued everything down. So when I got the mower all back together the crank was bound up so tight against the oil pan I couldn't even pull the cord to turn it over. So I ordered the proper oil pan gasket and repeated steps 1-10 all the while making sure everything was clean and went back together how it was supposed to, or so I thought🤦. Mower is all back together and although a little harder to pull start than before I tore it apart I am able to rip the pull start and get it to fire off. Though that's as far as I went because of it being harder to pull as well as the fact that it's now making a knocking noise. The only thing I can thing of is maybe the torque on the oil pan bolts being uneven and causing the outputshaft (crank shaft) to bind ever so slightly? So finally getting to the punch line, my question is has anyone else ever experienced this? I know it's an old mower and finding just about anything on it online has been heck. So any absolutely any constructive input would be beyond greatly appreciated.

Not sure, I'll have to go pull the blade and clutch off to check and get back to you. Do you by chance know what the end play tolerance would be if I were to throw a indicator on it?

I can't find any spec's for end clearance however I'd expect to see .003" - no more than .010"
 
I suspect with the knocking noise, I'd pull that engine apart again as of course it isn't normal and running it will only cause more damage..
 
 
My '07:
 
 
As for SRT, I'd like to have a 4 wheel SRT, but those are just my initials..  The FZ6 is my baby:

Got it all back together (with the proper torque) and before I hooked the blade or driveline back up I started it aand all is good! Thanks for the input SRT