Saving Old Seagulls

Update, picked up the above this evening, it seems like it's very original, not run for at least 20yrs,belonged to a marine engineer.
Hope this helps you Hugz :-SD 685 P3 on one crankcase side,B 3686 on the opposite side.
JM 9008 on the flywheel.
Steel petrol tank with nipple type cap
Can't yet decifer what way the seagull on the tank went.
P cast in the cylinder base.
Approximately 45" high from bottom of skeg to the top of the flywheel nut.
Bronze gear leaver with no inscription.
Bronze/brass exhaust tube.
Bronze/brass float bowl top.
C I E S S on skeg
2 grease nipples on one side of the gearbox and one on the other.
The numbers 797 stanped twice on the gear box.
Brass carb,plus brass trumpet air intake.
Bronze throttle control.
Bronze coolie hat.
Spare prop, piston ring, copper petrol pipe, lodge plugs,carb jet plus box key for fitting.plug lead,pull cord,KLG bakerlite plug caps x2,all new but very old.
Now I haven't tried yet to start I though did check for a spark and there was nothing so after I'd got the JM number l cleaned the points and hey presto a big fat blue spark,might not work under pressure ,I'll let you know soon,to say I'm delighted is a massive understatement.
Must learn how to send pictures.
All the best
Lodgey.

I just drag the picture from my puta into the body of message... too easy.

Good info.... added. Thanks. 59 on registry. When I get to 60 I'll republish.

Sounds like a great purchase, made all the more special with all those parts.

Look forward to seeing some pics when you're ready.

Regards,
Spiro

Tried to start this morning, all backfire and popping.,,(carb stripped and cleaned, tank rinsed etc first) still had a good spark,check the timing using the method Charles.uk gave in 2017,turns out to be too advanced by approximately 50 degrees, someone many years ago had obviously had a problem, set to approximately 25 degrees BTDC and it fired up,first pull,runs like a little Swiss watch. Never really expected there to be life in the old mag. Starts so so easy now.

Glad it runs, from my experience it is worth replacing the condenser.
They loose the spark when they get hot, have had it happen on 3 motors now.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Villiers-M17 ... ctupt=true

Post some pictures, we all like some pictures.
Don't loose the spare KLG spark plug caps, you would be surprised at what they are worth to the vintage motorbike guys.

H-A

Never saw a condenser on the stator plate?

You have to remove the points box, the condenser is under there. Nice buy that, all the best and hardest to find parts

The seagull faces the same way as your picture Hugz,with its beak towards the filler cap.