Hi, drained my 40+ gearbox last night and was surprised with what came out. Expected either a lot of nothing or reddish sludge. What I got was some clear cleanish water and a very slow dribble of very thick whitish cream gunk that in no way was an emulsion but something else. It eventually (like magnetism) all clumped back together into a ball on its own, separate from the clear water and resembled a skinned chestnut. Don't have a clue what it is but presume its got oily properties as the gearbox seems to function quite happily.
My query really then is what do you think I should do next. There is clearly going to be some of this stuff left in the box as a residue, should I try and flush it out with a thinner oil or somesuch to try and clear it or leave it in place and top up with EP140 on the basis that it will eventually disipate over time. I really didn't intend to strip this box down yet.
get as much of the goop as you can then pour in some mineral spirits, thinner, or similar solvent and replace the plug. remove the sparkplug and rotate the flywheel with the pull rope a few times so the internal parts move about then drain. repeat until the thinner drains out fairly clear. the solvent should clean out the goop well enough. once done make sure all the thinner drains out and refill with 140w.
you can also remove the back cover and clean but you'll need to have a replacement paper gasket ready when you put it back on. i cut my own gaskets, but SOS has the real thing.
Thanks Jerry,
I'll give that a try tonight. I wasn't sure about using a solvent but it makes sense if its only for short flushes. Still not sure what the goop was but the smell reminded me of the cutting lubricant (was much thinner like milk) used in a metalworking lathe at school a very long time ago
I would be very tempted to have look inside. It sounds like someone has put something odd in there. Whip the front cover off, have the shaft out and wash all the stuff out. Personally I use petrol when I can't get the diesel/petrol mix that mechanics empty out of cars that have been filled with the wrong stuff.
Last person to do that in my family was my daughter - filled up Fang's (ex-missus) diesel with petrol. That's my girl!
Gerard here up in Ayrshire. I'm just starting my winter projects, two 40+ builds. One was seized, the other the wire fastening the screws on the piston arm snapped, the wire slipped down into the bore and damaged the rings along with heavily scratching the piston and barrel, hence a rebuild. Anyway, I've decided on giving the both engines a right good overhaul. At this moment I've just taken the back off one of the gearboxes and what a mess I've found, all kinds of rusty sludge plus the usual milky goo. I'd now suggest you do the same, for all the time it'll take, it'll rejuvenate the gears, pinion etc. I'm not sure how to strip down the workings to get right inside (or whether I should), but a good soak in diesel or the likes should do the trick.
ok to take the back off if you feel the need- and you can pull the crown gear/shaft if you want but seagull service sheets discourage removal of the pinion.
the goop you're seeing sounds normal to me. its a salt water/oil mix aged to perfection for months or even years. if i was to drain one and see shavings i'd be concerned. you might run a magnet through the goop to look for gear shavings. if not i'd just rinse and go. that's just me though...
OK guys, you've convinced me that the gearbox back has to come off and I'll give it a good lookover inside while I'm at it. It really would be satisfying knowing that the gears are all in good nick and it nice and clean so thanks for all the good advice. One further query then, what sort of paper do you use to make the gasket from? I would guess it should be quite thick almost like a postcard type. Would that do? And should it be treated in any way?
Ken
Jerry In Maine wrote:............... but seagull service sheets discourage removal of the pinion.............
I've never felt that....there's no "Do not remove" stamped on the gearbox anywhere; or printed in the manual........... just a "whack it evenly with a lump of wood to avoid bruising the casting" ................. but I'd agree they can be a s*d to remove! Use your largest propane torch.
H-A has a point when he advises on taking into account your initial gasket thickness when keeping the mess (sic) the same if you make a replacement gasket because this will affect set up. BS factory line had at least three different thickness packing washers available to be able to set up correct meshing of crown and pinion. Sadly they didn't put any engagement numbers into the service sheets. Comes down to what you "feel" is right!
On the subject of packing gearboxes with grease if the previous miscreant owner recognises his work on packing this EFNR box with grease is reading this then I hope his next outboard seizes solid under him.............
Holy sh.t, now that's goop! I don't know how many people have the little owners handbook with their engines, I was lucky to get one with one of the engines I bought, anyway in it, it states under no circumstances use grease in the gears as this prohibits the free movement of the workings, only use oil. Now to this mechanical no-hoper that sounds quite simple enough to penetrate my brainbox. Maybe that should be stamped on the gear housing!!!
I got the gearbox back off this afternoon and cleaned all the gloop out, all nice and clean and reassembled. The gloop was definitely oil based and not grease. Made a paper gasket out of some thin card that was the closest in thickness to the original gasket that was on her. Checked play on the propshaft when it was all tightened up and there was just a very little movement so think that its OK. Filled her up with EP140 and tomorrow my job is to construct a testing mount and tub and we'll then see if she flies.
Incidently in this day and age where most things are done by computer I wondered if there would be any mileage in drawing up gaskets in CAD, saving as .pdf so they could be printed off and then simply cut out on whatever paper the user wanted? Or has someone already done that (you guys seem to have done it all before!)
There are quite a few past threads on techniques for duplicating paper gaskets. I doubt it would be worthwhile recreating them from scratch in CAD when it is so easy to scan to pdf or even simply photocopy. I suppose it depends how many you use each season on whether it is worthwhile. If you are necessarily buying in other spares from John at SOS then it probably isn't worth the time to make the gasket given their cost.
Incidently in this day and age where most things are done by computer I wondered if there would be any mileage in drawing up gaskets in CAD, saving as .pdf so they could be printed off and then simply cut out on whatever paper the user wanted? Or has someone already done that (you guys seem to have done it all before!)
