ORIGINAL: j_blaze
Here's what I did on both buggy and truggy. Its been working fine so far, I plan on getting bump plates on both soon. Until then, is this ok to do? Sometimes I get tiny bubbles coming out between the shaft and te bushing, probably loosing some power.
Yes, that is perfectly safe to do. The engine is completely sealed - well, except for the small leak that you are experencing. But, that leak would be there wether the starting sytem is attached or not. There are no engine internal parts exposed. The comment about the pressure in the crankcase is valid though. If you start to develop eratic tuning or overheating symptoms then that's the first thing that you need to look at.
If you go with a bump start backplate you may (probably will) have to change the crankshaft too