Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

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secretagentmole
Posts: 33
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 11:28 am
Location: Norfolk and Good

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Post by secretagentmole »

I come from a line of Seagull owners, my father had a seagull on his 16ft fibreglass dinghy and I recall the steady putt putt putt of the engine as it took us out and back again. How after running in the sea it would be flushed in the old freshwater tank that used to be in the loft. How it could stand for months in the garage or the shed and just be dropped on and fired up with ne'er a though in the world.

Forward about 35 years, the time is now, the boat is a 13 and a half foot Rana 410, 5 ft in the beam. Nice little craft for inshore mackerel bashing. Need a nice cheap outboard. Spy on Gumtree one Silver Seagull longshaft. Get the serial number from the seller, turns out to be a Century, 4.5hp of throbbing power, only it is not running so no throb. Seller wants £45, I offer £30 explaining it could just need a new HT lead, or it could be new coil. Seller accepts.

We get up at 5:30am and toddle off on a 170 mile round trip to collect the outboard.

Get there and I see the machine, the seller tells me they have another in bits, closer examination shows that it is a smaller engine, I explain that the only things that will be any use to me are the two prop springs, so a fiver, they say £20, I explain that nothing is swappable from one machine to the other save for the prop springs (the fuel tap has gone too), so a fiver was accepted and I wind up with most of a 40 Minus as well!

Well we got the machines home and I hastily made an outboard testing station, from the high home made saw horse (when two of you are working a large bush saw you do not want to be hunched over like a pair of Quasimodos). This involved nailing a sturdy plank of wood to the 4 inch fenceposts that our saw horse is made from. I managed to belt my left thumbnail. Still it held the engine so next I filled a dustbin full of water and placed that under the plank.

Now John on the SOS has to take a big bow here as he explained to me on the phone how to check if the cooling vents were blocked, idiot was watching the exhaust port and was panicking when no water was coming out. Three goes and then he wonders why his shoes are getting wet. Then he notices the two horizontal slots that John did tell him about and then he thinks to himself "You really should listen to the expert you numb nuts!" as water is gently exuding from them.

Next fuel, dribble some out into a metal bowl, looks clear enough, puts barbecue lighter to it and it burns. So fuel appears to be good too. The choke slide is not an original metal one, it is a piece of brown plastic. So now I have to remember the Rite of Seagull, tickle, trickle, slide the plastic over so choke is fully on, throttle all the way to open, wind rope, pull. Whup, whup, whup, no go. Start again, repeat for half and hour and think, something is not right. Try to get a spark, no spark. Consult the man again, points!

OK, so how to get the puller wheel off, approach with adjustable and lump hammer, on tap, nut unscrews sweetly! Full of surprises this little beast! Look for something that resembles points, yep! There they are, check for gap. No gap, none, zilch, zero. Now I only have metric feeler gauges and 20 thousands of an inch is 0.503mm, so 0.5mm it is, check plug gap as well, clean all things, put back together and then it rains. Cursing I went inside.

Back out try again, nothing. Again, nothing, check, reassemble, nothing. Name the beast Wilbur. Put plaintive cry for help on here, go out check again nothing. Get really angry and then calm. Nothing like a bit of fun on a Saturday is there? Take everything apart, EBC everywhere in top, then ACF50, then back together, go over HT lead carefully, check continuity. All good. Cursing even more reassemble, open choke flap so it is not obscuring carburettor, watch Spaniel go to pee up bin, pull hard on starter, nearly soil trousers at sudden and unexpected roar of Seagull at full chat. Spaniel gets half of bin dropped on top of him, hares off like trap 3 at Yarmouth, I leap for throttle which has slightly less effect that shutting the doors on a building at the centre of a nuclear explosion.

Whack the choke closed and stall the engine due to oxygen shortage. Run round garden screaming "It's alive!" Then try to figure out throttle problem. Seagulls, wonderful outboards!
secretagentmole
Posts: 33
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 11:28 am
Location: Norfolk and Good

Re: Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Post by secretagentmole »

Throttle cable should be 24 and a half inches, throttle cable 23 inches, an inch and a half short, I cobbled one together just to test and yes, with a throttle cable that shuts off it does stop the engine and slow the running speed!

Also found big lumps of carbon floating in the water, think it is decoking the exhaust....
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Collector Inspector
Posts: 4180
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:32 am
Location: Perth Western Australia
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Re: Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Post by Collector Inspector »

secretagentmole wrote:I come from a line of Seagull owners, my father had a seagull on his 16ft fibreglass dinghy and I recall the steady putt putt putt of the engine as it took us out and back again. How after running in the sea it would be flushed in the old freshwater tank that used to be in the loft. How it could stand for months in the garage or the shed and just be dropped on and fired up with ne'er a though in the world.

Forward about 35 years, the time is now, the boat is a 13 and a half foot Rana 410, 5 ft in the beam. Nice little craft for inshore mackerel bashing. Need a nice cheap outboard. Spy on Gumtree one Silver Seagull longshaft. Get the serial number from the seller, turns out to be a Century, 4.5hp of throbbing power, only it is not running so no throb. Seller wants £45, I offer £30 explaining it could just need a new HT lead, or it could be new coil. Seller accepts.

We get up at 5:30am and toddle off on a 170 mile round trip to collect the outboard.

Get there and I see the machine, the seller tells me they have another in bits, closer examination shows that it is a smaller engine, I explain that the only things that will be any use to me are the two prop springs, so a fiver, they say £20, I explain that nothing is swappable from one machine to the other save for the prop springs (the fuel tap has gone too), so a fiver was accepted and I wind up with most of a 40 Minus as well!

Well we got the machines home and I hastily made an outboard testing station, from the high home made saw horse (when two of you are working a large bush saw you do not want to be hunched over like a pair of Quasimodos). This involved nailing a sturdy plank of wood to the 4 inch fenceposts that our saw horse is made from. I managed to belt my left thumbnail. Still it held the engine so next I filled a dustbin full of water and placed that under the plank.

Now John on the SOS has to take a big bow here as he explained to me on the phone how to check if the cooling vents were blocked, idiot was watching the exhaust port and was panicking when no water was coming out. Three goes and then he wonders why his shoes are getting wet. Then he notices the two horizontal slots that John did tell him about and then he thinks to himself "You really should listen to the expert you numb nuts!" as water is gently exuding from them.

Next fuel, dribble some out into a metal bowl, looks clear enough, puts barbecue lighter to it and it burns. So fuel appears to be good too. The choke slide is not an original metal one, it is a piece of brown plastic. So now I have to remember the Rite of Seagull, tickle, trickle, slide the plastic over so choke is fully on, throttle all the way to open, wind rope, pull. Whup, whup, whup, no go. Start again, repeat for half and hour and think, something is not right. Try to get a spark, no spark. Consult the man again, points!

OK, so how to get the puller wheel off, approach with adjustable and lump hammer, on tap, nut unscrews sweetly! Full of surprises this little beast! Look for something that resembles points, yep! There they are, check for gap. No gap, none, zilch, zero. Now I only have metric feeler gauges and 20 thousands of an inch is 0.503mm, so 0.5mm it is, check plug gap as well, clean all things, put back together and then it rains. Cursing I went inside.

Back out try again, nothing. Again, nothing, check, reassemble, nothing. Name the beast Wilbur. Put plaintive cry for help on here, go out check again nothing. Get really angry and then calm. Nothing like a bit of fun on a Saturday is there? Take everything apart, EBC everywhere in top, then ACF50, then back together, go over HT lead carefully, check continuity. All good. Cursing even more reassemble, open choke flap so it is not obscuring carburettor, watch Spaniel go to pee up bin, pull hard on starter, nearly soil trousers at sudden and unexpected roar of Seagull at full chat. Spaniel gets half of bin dropped on top of him, hares off like trap 3 at Yarmouth, I leap for throttle which has slightly less effect that shutting the doors on a building at the centre of a nuclear explosion.

Whack the choke closed and stall the engine due to oxygen shortage. Run round garden screaming "It's alive!" Then try to figure out throttle problem. Seagulls, wonderful outboards!
Wonderful series of events!

Nostalgia does exist obviously aye!

BnC
A chicken is one egg's way of becoming others
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