Featherweight gearcase swap

[Egog]

Bought an early 70's Featherweight with a bad gearbox, not worth repairing the box so sourced a replacement from UK. Replacement has good bushes and gears but has holes instead of slits for cooling water. Off a Forty Minus I guess. Trouble is that it is narrower than the original and 1/16" to 1/8" of flange gasket is exposed around the edge. Will the Forty minus box work OK on the Featherweight flange or should I pass the minus box to minus owner who would hopefully have a nice Featherweight box for me?

[headdownarseup]

It should still fit as they have the same gearing.Casings can vary slightly in widths and depths hence the difference in gasket faces between the old and new. Pumphousings are slightly different too on both types of boxes.
However, the boxes with holes are much earlier and are better suited to the older models.
What you really need is a box with the slots. Better keeping parts together that are of the same era.


Jon

[Egog]

Thanks Jon. I shall use the older gearbox just to check the engine out (being attentive to cooling water flow). Will look for the correct box or see if the current one is salvable (needs new pinion, crown wheel and bushes, drilling out broken screw and welding - expensive!) Certainly agree that the older box should be on a Little Forty or Forty Minus and will advertise it when I have a working Lightweight replacement.

[Collector Inspector]

I would like to see a pic or few about this please?

Interesting.

B