Saving Old Seagulls

I have a spare Wipac coil and points here, so I can see and understand how they would be fitted.

Can these units be bench tested?


I put a circuit tester on audio and checked between the brown wire to the points and the brass nipple that the HT lead connects to, I got no indication of a circuit, I assume the coil is at fault?

Possibly not as the working one on my Seagull 40 reads zero as well.

This Wipac coil is marked M2, the one on the engine that I am working on is marked M3 ( in vertical bars) another I have is not marked, does this date them?

tambikeboy wrote:A brave man would stick 2 fingers in the flywheel recess and take the weight of motor in one hand whilst whacking with the other remember the further that it's of the ground the further it's conna fall...

Thanks, it can only fall as far as the dome nut will allow?

I would hang it close to the floor which has a carpet on it .

Thanks, it can only fall as far as the dome nut will allow?

I was being funny if you use the brave man method and whack your hand instead of the crank shaft then it's conna fall right to the floor . Bashed tank snapped tiller and probably tank lugs and a few old time Scottish words thats why I prefer to go a long way for a short cut.....

The one man rope trick works and I can recomend that method, you have a lot of control for sure.

The one pound copper faced hammer was a good weight for this job, it still took a few good whacks though, the nice rechromed dome nut is trashed though.

Before the one pound copper faced hammer and after.

The masking tape was there so that I could mark the shafts relation to the key way in the flywheel.

The missing key was in fact there, just a lot lower down the center shaft that I expected.

With the so called missing key still being there the timing will not have been wrong.

I am now into new ground for myself.

I note that an audio test meter between the points and Wipac coil terminal produces no sound, is the coil some sort of solid state electronic system that does not test as a wound coil would ?

Next I can remove the Wipac unit and clean it and the base plate that it fixes down to, when the flywheel has been repainted and fitted I can re set the points, they are at 0.5mm anyway, what else can I do?

It seems I have found nothing wrong yet?

The original base plate had a section on the rear edge on the boats transom side, so I have removed that and fitted a spare one that is undamaged.

The rope hanging trick is not recommended by anyone as it can be hazardous to flywheel health.

You work it out, if the flywheel doesn't release where does all the impact force go?

Bearing in mind this flywheel is made from a brittle high zinc alloy.

Better check yours for cracks around the windows!


Anyone got a picture of a broken flywheel center still on the crankshaft?

Charles uk wrote:The rope hanging trick is not recommended by anyone as it can be hazardous to flywheel health.

You work it out, if the flywheel doesn't release where does all the impact force go?

Bearing in mind this flywheel is made from a brittle high zinc alloy.

Better check yours for cracks around the windows!


Anyone got a picture of a broken flywheel center still on the crankshaft?

Charles, thanks on your advice.


I bead blasted the flywheel inside and out, then sprayed it all over with an etch primer to accept the top coat, if any cracks had happened I would have seen them.

I'm a bit rusty here and not up on wipac but you would be looking at 2 readings here. A close to dead short on the primary winding which is the wire going to the points and earth/ground and the secondary winding which has a lot of fine coils (20 thousand) which is measured from the HT lead contact and ground/earth. As both coils have a common earth you should get a resistance reading from HT contact and wire to points. I think you would be better served by using an analogue or a digital meter.

There's some other components inside the coil case (condenser/resisters) I'm told Hugo, that confuse the issue.

Hugz wrote:I'm a bit rusty here and not up on wipac but you would be looking at 2 readings here. A close to dead short on the primary winding which is the wire going to the points and earth/ground and the secondary winding which has a lot of fine coils (20 thousand) which is measured from the HT lead contact and ground/earth. As both coils have a common earth you should get a resistance reading from HT contact and wire to points. I think you would be better served by using an analogue or a digital meter.

John at SOS has just advised what the readings should be and where to test for them?

Right now we are all back together, new base plate and a paint job on the flywheel.

Same result mind you, as the engine will still not fire!

Test a coil by simply measuring between the HT outlet and earth, should be
3500 to 4500 Ohms.

I have just tested with my digital meter and I read 5.0 ohm is this too high?

The spare one I have reads to 4.5 ohm which is on the high end of Johns indication.


On the newest motor I have the reading is 3.9 ohm.

Ready to run, if only it would.

african imp wrote:Ready to run, if only it would.

So you now have

Spark
Compression
Fuel
I'm guessing.