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Seagull - Lower leg stripdown

After a few posts to the SOS forum - with regard whether the entire lower end could drop off if this joint slipped ( it can ) - I decided to look in to fixing it. It makes the motor 'intact' if I ever sell it on. It's also a great way to get to know an engine.

I think really I just enjoy taking things apart !

After a call to SOS, Saving Old Seagulls, John who runs it confirmed he had plenty of top cases for this model at about £15 - cheap enough.

SOS is an almost 'essential' source if you have a seagull - John was very helpful. Nice to deal with someone who actually knows and is interested in what he's selling - rare these days.

In a short time. I'm getting to like these engines. Maybe its nostalgia - its like stepping back in time. I do like the small Suzuki 2 for the tender - as I'm always lugging it around, so the weight it everything. But it made me think about some of the smallest model seagulls as a tender engine ?

( Maybe I've served my Seagull apprenticeship, without really knowing it, on all those old cars, years ago...and why, oh why, did I throw out all those drawers full of Whit and BSF spanners ! )

Actually - I've mostly just used one small 'good quality' adjustable and the big one for the plug, plus a flat screwdriver.

Top case fixing bolts

Well - can't see them here, now they are out ( hole left, hole middle )

Mine were allen sockets, Imp 3/16. Apparently cheese headed screws orignally. The front one, left here, was no problem. The middle bolt was very stiff. There is a very thick gasket between the top casing and the lower unit - why so thick, who knows ?

Its worth noting the top casing bolt holes are pretty slack to the bolt - so really they should not seize in there. Also, the threaded holes in the lower case are open at the base - if you turn the engine upside down. This was probably deliberate in order to minimise any corrosion build up.

I tried the middle with an ordinary 3/16 allen key, plus an extention tube of sorts. It didn't like it - I then left it for about two days, constantly flooding the top with ease-it ( I didn't realise then that the bottoms of the lower threads were exposed undernieth - I could have turned it upside down and filled the holes with the penetrating oil.) I then put a heavy blowlamp on it for about five mins - and it shifted easily.

I ended up chopping my 3/16 allen key into little bits - then putting the stub into a 3/16th socket. I think you can buy them like that, in a socket, but not sure of Imperial sizes. Its a good trick if you only have the one key, and its getting knackered at the end !

Lower unit - complete with the shaft

The drive shaft is a square, hollow tube. It just slides over the square end of the crank at the top - and pushes down into the top of the lower spigot small gear wheel. The rotor seems to be some sort of hard plastic/rubber. It's designed not to touch the sides of the housing - and seems just to be a sliding fit ? ( I'm not touching it - so its position stays set. There's no sign of any cracks and it seems as good as new. Apparently they can split if the corrosion builds up on the shaft ) Generally the shaft is pretty good - the worst showing here, low down, is only slight surface pitting.















Leg out - with some gentle persuasion

Nice to see one of my late Dad's hammers in use - somehow it suits the age these engines flourished in.

Strangely - despite the Estwings etc amongst all my chippy stuff - I still use his old hammers. They sort of live in the garden and the greenhouse. I havn't got the heart to properly fix the heads - just bash another old nail in the end now and then. Anyway - living in the garden they are always soaking wet. You see - it was the only hammer I had that had a chisel end - and I don't have a proper brick hammer either, so there - it did the job.

Its easier to undo the chrome tube from the crankcase - two nuts and spring washers. before splitting the lower joint. The rear is a bit of a pig to get at - and really needs a whit spanner. They are nice chunky nuts though - so I tried it with a good small adjustable pushed on tight - vertical, with my bigger adjustable around the head of the smaller ( not quite textbook stuff ) It came - but I was lucky. It does not have to come off.

It just means you can work with just the tube and the top casing and get it to a vice if needed.

Wow - this is some substantial tube ! Mine is a bit pitted here and there - but its really heavily chromed.

It reminds me so much of the old cars I used to have - when they had real chrome bumpers - they were always pickled as well - those little spiders of rust creeping away from the big spot, under the plating. I'd forgotten all that till I started on this thing !

I've just weighed it - 3lb 3 oz. Out of interest, since I had the scales out - the entire lower unit, complete with driveshaft, is only 6lbs 2oz - minus the prop.

Prop weighs in at 1lb 4ozs. Now there's useless information for you.

This is the offending boss - the pinch bolt has been ground away. It seemed pretty stiff as it was - but I didn't really whack it much. I had the lamp all set up from heating up the top casing - so I blasted it for about 3 or 4 mins and it tapped out easily. Normally, a steel tube in an alloy sleeve, in sea water, for thirty years - suggests 'welded solid'. Maybe the heavy real chrome plate does not react with the alloy - you can see the end of the tube is pristine where it came out.

I'm amazed how enjoyable it has been to work on this engine - I thought it was going to be a right pig - but quite the opposite.