Rare as hens teeth. 170 conrod assembly.

[Frosty]

Hi Everyone,

The night before the Bermuda Round The Island race succesfully destroyed my 170 conrod and end cap. Doesn't seem to be any other damage. Just wondering if anyone may have any spares available. SOS John suggests using it as an anchor weight. I'm to attatched to it to sink it right now. Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Charles uk]

The only way to get a con rod is buy a 170 & then throw the rest away, hence the expression "strip before starting!"
if you'd done that it might have been fixable.

No one has yet managed to find a rod from something else that will fit, what you need to look for is a rod with a split big end, 76mm centre to centre, 13mm phosphor bronze little end & a phosphor bronze 20mm big end.

I have searched for many years no joy, not even close, see if you can find someone in Bm who will modify your crankcase to take a Century crank & modify the rod to take a 13mm wrist pin, it will be cheaper to buy another 170 & ship it in.

I might be able to help with a powerhead, PM me & John might have a used rod but remember all used 170 rods come without a guarantee!

I did speak to a company about having some new rods made but I don't think they came back to me, I'll chase them up.

[Michael]

Frosty,
Not sure who you are but I am in Bermuda and may be able to help. Got a bunch of 170 stuff, including conrods.
email me at:
michaela AT colonial DOT bm
or you can pm me on here

[Charles uk]

I now know why they didn't come back to me, I was meant to get back to them!

It now looks like I can get a fully machined aluminium conrod with proper bronze bearings for the 170 & 125 re-manufactured, as most of these Seagulls are used in the racing arena they will be made suitable for this purpose i.e. stronger than the original.

I've got to see them next week to discuss, the problem I'm faced with is that I have to buy 10 or more to get the price down to an affordable level.

So it seems that we should be able to get a new crankshaft & conrod for the 170 for less than £200, I won't know the exact figure until after my meeting next week.

Most of these will have to be pre sold as I don't want to have £1000 worth of 170 cranks sitting on my shelf, so if you have a serious interest in one please email me.

[Michael]

Charles, I would be interested in a couple of strong 170 conrods.
Really do not need crankshafts - do they have to make both parts? Are they building them with closed big end on the conrod, therefore needing to build a pressed together crank? I am guessing that locally there are a few others who may be interested, Osbornes, JJ, Lightbourne, etc

[Frosty]

Thanks Charles,

I would be interested in a new one if meeting works out. Will mail you my details.

[Charles uk]

Well the project is still on going.

Now faced with the dilemma, machine from solid or from castings, whatever I end up with, it's got to be able to handle higher revs than the Seagull original.
Whichever one I go for it looks like it will have to have a bronze end cap, as a pair of shell bearings add quite a lot to the cost & & complexity of re-manufacture, even after John gave me a bag of century big end spacers.

In a couple of months I should have the test results on a pair of stock new 170 cranks, that I'm just having assembled that have been made 3 piece to take 5R rods.

My blue racing 170 is running a 5R fully jewelled type crank, we all know the revs they can handle & I've broken a couple of them at 6k+


So the plan is build one, then build a 170 that I can get someone to test at 5500 to 6000 revs on the back of a boat for 20 + hours, to see how it gets on.
Your not talking a ten minute job here so you all will have to learn a little patience.

Was your new rod used or unused frosty?

[Michael]

Charles,
The conrod he got from me was used.

[Charles uk]

The batch of new170 conrods are well underway, the castings have just been surface finished, the phosphor bronze for the little & big ends has been delivered & the fixtures for machining are allmost ready, I'm guessing they will be ready for shipping in about 4 weeks.

I've just realised that I've only contacted the racing Seagullers to see who was interested in obtaining remanufactured rods, SORRY.

If you've got a 170 & want to talk about spares availability or your wondering if you can afford a new conrod Mail or Pm me preferably with a landline number as I talk way better than I type, & I'll get right back to you.

[Charles uk]

Look what I've got

They're new 170 con rods with bronze end caps, honed to size, little & big end bearings.

I also have quite a lot of NOS 170 powerhead parts, heads, cylinders, crankshafts, piston sets & new main bearings, most of which have not been available for several years.

Most of the above is for the Bermuda racing guys, but if your screaming for something email me.

[Oyster 49]

Top job Charles!

[Charles uk]

Got conrod today. It looks fantastic.Thanks again for arranging its
manufacture. Cannot wait to fit it and get motor running

Cheers,
Scott

Scott ensure you don't mix up way the end cap is fitted to the rod, the rod & cap are both marked, lube liberally, reassemble, torque screws to 8 to 9 foot/lbs & wire big end screws with soft iron wire.

Enjoy Charles

Well they are there, or well on their way to there. One of them ran at Lerryn & got a lot of abuse (screaming out of gear) as the carb was not happy at all.