Saving Old Seagulls

Hi.

I've recently acquired EFPW 96G8 and with the aid of a number of spare parts kindly supplied by John, I'm gradually renovating it to its former glory.

When fixed to a transom the engine is not quite straight, and careful inspection revealed the transom bracket is slightly bent as per the picture- the thin sections at the bottom both deviate slightly to the left as viewed in the picture.

My question: Can these simply be bashed straight, or would it be a good idea to anneal the metal first? Youtube is full of helpful videos of how to anneal brass, but I think my bracket might be bronze, which I gather requires much more careful annealing- doing it wrong can make it more rather than less prone to breakage.

Secondly, just visible in the picture, the right hand stainless steel screw is fractionally bent. It will screw in and out but is very stiff at the bent section. Any tips for how best to straighten it?

Thanks

Pete

Hi Peter welcome to the forum.
I would take the bracket apart, and then just hold the bronze side pieces individually in a vice, and give them a tweak with a large adjustable spanner to get them straight.

I would not anneal them, just take care of the bottom drilled tilt adjusting section, if you stress that bit they can break on the holes.

The thumb screw could be a bit harder, but I would wind it in to the point of the bend then with a large adjustable or grips try and bend it straight.
The only other thing you could try would be to remove the cup washer, that will let you remove the screw, then stick it in a vice and straighten it.
Use soft jaws at all times in the vice, if you damage the thread you will need to re-cut it. Replacing the cup washer can be tricky as you need to rivet the end of the screw slightly.
I think John did replacement thumb screws, not sure if they are still available.

Good luck, worst case replacement brackets are cheap and plentiful.

Thanks very much. I'll give that a go

Pete

Progress report:

The bronze was very easy to straighten using the vice and adjustable spanner method- job done in 5 minutes.

The pictures above show how I managed to straighten the screw without needing to un rivet the head. 3 small blocks of wood were placed at the bend and either side of the bend opposite. The key to success is very careful positioning in the vice, and then tighten it. A bigger vice than mine would be good- I really had to lean on it to straighten the screw.

The thread is almost perfect- it screws with just a bit of resistance, not really noticeable after lubricating it.

P

Glad it worked.

H-A