Saving Old Seagulls

I was visiting an old friend of mine a while back, who is an ardent cricket fan. I happened to mention that my sister in law, an ardent golf fan, had spent the whole of the previous weekend in front of the telly, watching some golf tournament.
"Ah, I love it when golf is on telly", says my pal
"I ...

Hello all. I have, under my wing, a QB Osprey which has been misbehaving. It ran OK for five minutes or so, then the revs started fluctuating then finally stopped and would not re start. There seemed to be a reasonably healthy spark straight after the motor stopped, but it would not re start. Five ...

Twenty quid plus postage for a new spring, ouch!

If I were doing this again, I would make a jig to prepare the spring for fitting. Take another piece of ply and draw a circle on it which is maybe an eighth of an inch smaller diameter than the spring retaining posts cast in the starter housing. Put three screws at equidistant spacing around the ...

Success !! After another hour or so of flying springs, trapped fingers, a liberal use of expletives and even sparks at one stage, the spring is now residing in the starter housing, where it belongs, all is now well.

I forgot to mention the reason I had to do this in the first place, the spring had ...

I have just spent a fruitless and sometimes painful half an hour , trying to wind and fit a recoil starter spring to a QB Osprey and have now retreated, to reconsider my strategy and lick my wounds. Any tips as to how to wind and fit the spring, whilst avoiding serious injury would be most welcome ...

I have a '46 or '47 102, ACR 98L, ( Hi Niander, maybe mine was made the same day as yours) . I was really lucky finding this gem, hardly any signs of wear in engine and gearbox, two small dents in the tank and every nut and bolt has undone easily. Methinks it has had an easy life in fresh water, the ...

Hi,

If you are running this motor in a test tank, try disconnecting the prop, this may well solve your cooling water problem. The prop wash can sometimes cause an un natural water flow, in artificial test tank conditions, that interferes with water intake to the motor.

Regards Andy.

Hmmm, I have been thinking more about this, use the cooling water from the top of the 102 block to preheat the paraffin, running through a coil in the fuel tank. Devise some sort of mixer, to mix heated paraffin, with a petrol/two stroke mix supply, variable to give acceptable running. I'll hazzard ...

Have just noticed a mention of paraffin powered Gulls on another thread. This idea has huge appeal to my thrifty nature. I have never thought about running two strokes on it before.
Presumably consideration would need to be given to:

Starting on petrol, then switching to paraffin. Two tanks?
Does ...

Hello All,
Our QB Osprey has had two kill switch failures in the last four years. The first wouldn't stop the engine, not too drastic. The second, failed closed, so the engine wouldn't run, potentially disastrous, as the engine is used as an auxiliary on our dive club rib.
As the person ...

Thanks for the helpful replies chaps. Charles, the bracket is aluminium with a swinging "prop" to hold the engine in the lifted position. However the bracket is broken and needs welding. I suspect this may be why the engine was laid up in the first place.

This evening I have had the engine ...

Hello All.
An old Seagull has recently fallen into my hands. As the equipment officer for my local diving club I am used to huge complicated V6 two stroke outboards, complete with oil injection, power trim and tilt, and horribly complicated wiring which is strongly reminiscent of the aftermath of ...