Saving Old Seagulls

fuel cap

Romainpek wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:55 pm Thanks,
For problem 2, should I saw the shaft off, I saw on ebay the following :

just try and straighten it, stick a bit of tube over the bent bit and bend it straighter it does not need to be perfect to get it apart.

then you can assess the damage better.

1) first problem, it seems the drive shaft won't separate from the gearbox, is there a trick to separate them ?


I use some heat from a propane torch to warm up where the square tube meets the gearbox, then get a bit of 8mm (5/16") round bar (stainless if you have it) about 50mm longer than ...

Romainpek wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:27 am Must be priceless !

Not priceless, but it is unused and in box. Bought it off a guy who's father had bought it new in Brittany.

Welcome to the forum, glad you got it going

I have a French Seagull

Pull the plug and squirt some petrol in the cylinder.
That will give you the petrol where it needs to be for ignition, it will be too rich initially to start but will soon lean out enough to give you a pop after a few pulls.

Crankcase issues are very low on my list of things to look for, flood the ...

Charles uk wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:47 am It's starting to sound like H-A is closest to the answer, with his flywheel keyway suggestion.

not me

I hope I'm not stating the obvious here, but have you tried squirting a shot of fresh fuel straight into the air intake, to see if it will fire?

Cheers, Mark


If they have a spark at the correct time and compression they will run on WD40, just give it a squirt down its intake and it will run ...

Well done Ed, it works and looks like it goes well.

Looks like I had better mend my race boat and add the improvements.

Sorry to hear your sad news Bruce.

here is a rusty one

Yes Auxiliary bracket on closer inspection.
Have you got the bit not bolted to the boat?

I would use a Forty Plus, featherweight could be long enough if calm.

Not sure, these are some of the more common options

http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/no ... 20info.jpg

I just cut the same amount off everything, only issue is if drive tube has a reduced diameter where it goes into gearbox, cant remember on 170.

Did wonder if drive shaft was hardened, you could always case harden it, but I did not bother.