Marston in the UK

[seagull101]

I'm no expert either but it didn't blow up or overheat so it couldn't have caused any damage!

[Charles uk]

Why not try it with you SD & let us know how it gets on.

As for the youtube your talking chalk & cheese.

[headdownarseup]

This is all starting to get WAY out of control now.

There was oil in the fuel mix, that's ALL that anybody needs to know. Whether you can see smoke or not that's up to you and your eyesight. I was there, you weren't. I smelt the oil. IT WAS THERE. End of.....
30 seconds of running will do it very little harm. From memory the BS literature even says that 30 seconds of "air time" will be fine.
That's good enough for me.

Next time there will be plenty of visible smoke for ALL to see when it's in a bin. Have no fear.



For the record, a couple of years ago i was running a 102 "bitsa" i had put together from spare parts in my local reservoir. The pump housing wasn't the best fitting one i had but i went with it all the same.
It was fine for the first 20 minutes or so until the water stopped flowing from the tell tale. (it later transpired that the bolts holding the pumphousing together had started to back themselves out to almost falling out)
20 mins chugging back to the dock with no water pumping from the tell tale (and no spanners onboard either) from something i had put together from bits, that's testament to the BS engineers. Bloody tuff things the 102 despite getting BLOODY HOT. No more steam, nothing but gurgling noises.
It still runs today with no apparent ill effects. No scores to the bore, rings are as good as when i put them in, easy starter etc. etc. I think running on 10:1 probably saved it quite a bit though.

VERY VERY tuff things some of these older seagull engines.

Think about what starts to happen when some weed covers the water inlet at the gearbox. This could easily happen to any one of us anywhere.


Jon

[Charles uk]

Sorry if we distressed you Jon, that wasn't the intention, we were just trying to help you avoid any damage to a nice Marston.

Our view is that it's better to err on the side of caution, with these pre war motors.

Marstons have very little in common with the post war Seagulls that still have many new spares available, so it might be better to ignore British Seagull's recommendations in that regard.

I do have a little experience in working on the entire Marston product range, so there is no guess work in my advice, though I haven't surveyed the one your playing with as it was taken from the original vendors hands (Richard) before I could go up to inspect it.

The registry still carries some new remanufactured & used spares in stock & has a fairly good idea who has parts surplus to their requirements, so if you want to let me know what you & AJ need, I'll add you to the wish list.

[Adrian Dale]

I watched careful what was going on and no overheating occurred it was also well lubricated from the re build and was also tested in water in my tank in Tassie for about 15 minutes with good cooling and water flow before the dicky ignition system let me down. It was stripped, inspected and shipped back. A boroscope showed no corrosion in the water passages and the unmistakable imprint of the original sand castings. Yes they are thin but when new were deemed to have adequate material to warrant the advertising concerning strength and resistance to corrosion. Only years of non flushing and salt water caused the damage often exposed in heavily damaged cylinders.

Rest assured that as a marine engineer who soiled and maintained old steam tankers I am well versed in corrosion.

AJ
Attached is a photo of the OA full number
[*]

[headdownarseup]

Not distressed Charles, just rather annoyed that some of you think i don't know what i'm doing with this.
I had A-J hovering (well... almost) over my shoulder watching my every move in the re-assembly. I take instruction from the person who did the initial strip down. I just twirl the spanners around and get it back together.

Just so everyone has a better understanding into my working background i've spent the last 30 odd years as a mechanic/fitter (my apologies, nowadays we're called technicians ) working on all manner of different engine types from diesels to petrols, multi cylinder to single cylinder including 2 strokes, wankels to hybrid petrol/electric, turbo-charged ,super-charged, and normally aspirated.
I spent nearly 5 years as a mini moto racer building my own engines till my knees gave out and said NO MORE. Some hard lessons learned along the way i grant you.
By far and away, the earlier engines is what i like the most just for their simplicity and engineering.
This little seagull (despite it's rarity) is still relatively straight forward to me.

It's in good hands with me
I won't let anything bad happen to it i promise. Scouts honour


Jon

[crab24]

Hello
Having been a follower of this forum for a few years now i thought it time to join
i have put a few pictures on for you all to look at it used to be mine.
get well soon Adrian
Richard

[headdownarseup]

Welcome aboard Richard.
Very nice to hear from one of the original owners of this motor. Quite humbling for me i must say.

This is indeed a very treasured little seagull. Well, it is now anyway. After all the attention this little one has got in the last few weeks i'm going to have to think carefully where the safest resting place will be for it. It's going to be joining an ever growing flock so i need to find a quiet perch for it somewhere .
Rest assured, this won't be the last time anyone sees this little 'un doing its stuff. It will get the occasional chance for a paddle under strict supervision of course by yours truly and a certain "other".

Nice to see a set of before and after pics for comparison. In time there will be a few more added once the engine is looking its best, but for now at least it's more a case of getting to know it better before i go digging deeper.

Jon

[headdownarseup]

Quick update for you all.
Myself and my two boys have just returned from spending a few days with A-J and his lovely wife Allegra.
Most of my time has been spent getting his flock of quite respectable old seagulls (and some not very old) going again. Quite a time of it i've had i must say, but well worth it just to see that smile back on A-J's face again. I've learned quite a lot from the old boy in the last few days who's been a fountain of knowledge,and for that i'm very grateful. My boys were kept busy with odd jobs around the place which kept them out of mischief.
Adrian seems to be making good progress all the time. Still a long way to go yet, but from the last time i saw him a few weeks ago his walking and general mobility has improved enormously. Keep it up

Anyway,part 2 of the OA in a test bin went very well. Big cheers from the both of us when it fired into life again Plenty of cooling water, lots of smoke (8:1 fuel mix) and ran nicely for about 15 mins with the prop removed,although now the ignition has started to throw its toys out of the pram.(intermittent spark) My little "repair" to the ignition which involved replacing the moving part of the points worked very nicely as the original set of points had virtually worn away the thrust pad, hence the points were not opening/closing as they should. I suspect that either the coil or the condenser has other ideas at the moment, but for now at least the little fella is resting nice and cozy with some other old(ish) gulls.
More coming soon when i can get back into that troublesome ignition. Apart from that it's all good.

Jon

[Hugz]

It's a good idea to measure the ohm reading of the secondary winding of the coil. If the resistance slowly increases whenever you measure it over time you know the green rot has set in.

Did you get the details of Adrian's 2 wartime machines for me? Also your two.

George at Villiers parts has replacement long arm points for the JM magneto.