1986 Johnson 140 troubles

[NJBoater01]

I have a 1986 johnson 140. It was always very easy to start when cold and would stay running without a problem. All of a sudden, it has become very hard to start when cold, and will take several minutes to get running. Once it has run a couple minutes, and is turned off, it will restart quickly with a bump of the key. The compression in all cylinders was between 105 and 115. The primer seems to be working, because once running, if I push in the key it will bog the engine and want to stall. It also seems that the battery may not be charging...or maybe a bad battery. The tach still works. I know this is long winded, but while searching around for this problem I found another. The round plate that houses the upper crank bearing was found to be loose and the bolts had backed out causing it to move up and down about 1/4" and fuel and oil to leak while running. I tightened it back down, and don't know if finding that was a coincedence or related to the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.