Saving Old Seagulls

Quick question, well 2,

Been advised to change gear oil after every trip

And

Of course need 2 stroke to add

Looking online, small bottles of each are around a tenner each
Can I buy both in larger quantities cheaper, and if so, any links

Change the oil after every trip? I believe sir will be requiring one of these...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAE-140-Gear ... 1a52790815

Other sizes also available...

http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/Westway-Lubricants-Shop

Seems a bit excessive renewing the contents of your gearbox every time. Perhaps Charles should have said CHECK your oil level after each use.
It is important to check.

I know gear oil is important, but even so, if after around 10 hours of usage you find your gearbox has leaked THAT much oil there must be something seriously wrong with it.
Whenever i have a motor in storage for a long time i'll often put something underneath the gearbox and prop to act like a drip tray and keep an eye out for any oil that might leak out. Anything that leaks out over time is then contained within this drip tray and this way i can judge how bad an oil leak might be. Crude but pretty effective.

Cheers bwab

I wish I had your ability to judge the condition of this gentlemen's lower unit & what sort of 140 oil he manages to purchase, I felt it might be safer to err on the side of caution, considering how little oil is required for an oil change & how many of these unsealed featherweight gearboxes are on their last legs, more often than not due to a poor lubrication regime.

Perhaps after 2 or 3 typical voyages, Steve can make his own decision on the lubrication requirements after he accesses the condition of his lower unit.

He doesn't live next door to the most friendly stretch of water!

Charles accesses the condition of his lower unit and assesses his lubrication requirements on a daily basis. Sometimes more than once.

Sarcasm misplaced.
For those that do know, the smaller boxes hold a fraction of that oil that, for example, a Forty Plus will take, and consequently the oil will 'contaminate' very quickly with water ingress.
The oil does not leak or escape so much - rather, water enters the 'box and affects the oil quite rapidly, and a check/change takes only a few minutes.

I know from first hand experience that replacement gear pairs are almost impossible to find/expensive to replace.

I'm not getting onto the semantics of hours of use per outing, wear of bushes and all the other potential variables.

fleetingcontact wrote:Charles accesses the condition of his lower unit and assesses his lubrication requirements on a daily basis. Sometimes more than once.

Wow calling a moderator a wanker, but unnecessary.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream...

OK Puck, not sure why you would start spouting Shakespeare.

Still unnecessary.

Gents please, before this gets out of hand could i say a couple of things which might clear things up a bit.

From my own experience of having a few 40 minus gearboxes and more importantly actually using them i've taken onboard what has been said before about these smaller gearboxes and am fully aware of how the water ingress pushes out the oil from within etc. Pretty much the same thing goes for a lot of older "non sealed" seagull gearboxes. Time of course will have taken its toll on some of the working parts that many folks might not have seen before.

Perhaps what is not understood here is the level of one person's mechanical aptitude towards these old outboards. For all we know, Steve in Sheppey might know what he's doing when it comes to stripping and rebuilding an old seagull, but who's to say the next person seeking advice will be as knowledgeable. I think we ALL need to be a bit more sympathetic towards other folks seeking advice.

I've lost count of how many seagull "projects" that have been started and then fallen at the first hurdle just because a bolt or screw has sheared off trying to get a gearbox end cap off or whatever it might be. Have a look on ebay or similar and you'll find them. Who's to say that person selling one of these "projects" could be a very shy and quietly spoken member of SOS that hasn't posted before to ask for help and given up due to not knowing what they were doing and were too afraid to ask on here. We must ALL accept that not everybody knows all the little intricacies of how seagulls work. Not everyone will have a well equipped garage or shed as some of us have very little to work with. One thing that is common with all of us however is a soft spot for the dear old seagull outboard motor no matter how old or how broken it is.

All joking aside and getting back to my crude observations, using a drip tray of sorts should give anyone a fair idea of how bad things actually are provided you can get some oil into the gearbox in the first place. It's at that point i would decide on whether to dismantle a suspect gearbox or not. If it's not broke it don't need fixing etc. etc. but there has to be a first time for any seagull owner to take the plunge and get stuck in.

I'm trying to stay neutral in much of this, but one thing that seems to have been lost over recent years is the supportive and friendly network that is SOS. Things have been said in the past that shouldn't have been said and i agree totally with the outcome myself included.

I don't think i've been rude here, but things seem be taking a turn for the worse here. Can we try to get back to something more friendly and support each other with our projects. No question is a silly question no matter who's asking it.

nuff said

quite ironic from an individual removed from the forum because of his previous antics, now rejoining under a new name...

I like Shakespeare. We is homies.

@blokeinaboat
Recently made drip tray

After you first outing, tip the oil out into a jar and let it sit for a few days... You will see a change as the water sinks to the bottom.
Judge for yourself if you think the oil is still good put it back and top it up.