A Pair of Forties

[Raya]

Thanks for the tip, but the prop was off when the motor was run, so nothing that simple. I'll measure the old rotor today and see how it compares with the spec. of a new one. There is some visible wear on the blade tips.

[tambikeboy]

in case this was causing the water pump problem.

Thinking out loud did you check there was no obstruction in the Copper pipe.....

[Charles uk]

Seagull water pumps don't pump water below about 1500 revs.

Worn water pump rotors seldom cause problems, it's probably what Tam suggests, blocked water pipe.

[Raya]

I measured the old rotor and compared against the one from the featherweight. No difference that I could see. When I reassembled the pump, I moved the rotor closer to the flange gasket. This did the trick, and pump started working. I think that the problem was that the rotor was a little loose on the shaft as I had to remove it when I freed the frozen pinion joint, allowing it to move up when rotating. The new rotor should fix this. I also added a bit more water in the drum to increase the head of water above the pump. This increased the flow from the head a little more. I ran the engine for some time and all was good. Thanks for your suggestions with this issue.

Here is the Seagull in action.

Pumping water at last.

[Raya]

The gearbox for the featherweight that I ordered on EBay from the UK arrived. Disassembly revealed that the crown and pinion gears showed no wear and there was no play between the propeller shaft and bushes. Very pleased with this purchase. With a coat of paint, the gearbox looks like new. The end cap screws were in good condition so no need to replace them. I have been mucking around with electroplating a few parts with nickle, so just plated the heads to make them look nicer.

My electroplating setup is very simple, but works OK for the smaller items. So far I have plated the pully dome nut, carby clamp, throttle clamp and nuts, and several nuts and bolts. The finish isn't as shiney as a professional finish, but more than acceptable for me. I didn't buy a kit, only a couple of bits of nickle for anodes.

My next challenge is the stripped thead in the tiller arm. Mr Bodge had managed to use a bolt of unknown heritage to hold the tiller in. I'll try some liquid metal to restore the thread, but if that fails, I may have to buy a helicoil kit to repair it. Not sure if it is worth the expense to repair one thread.

Here is a pic of my electroplating set up. I've since added a small aquarium pump to circulate the water which has improved the finished product just a little.

Nickel plating in progress

[Raya]

The aluminium exhaust tube on the forty plus was looking the worse for wear, so tried to find some 1.75" tubing to make a new one. This size was not available from the local aluminium suppliers (which was hardly a surprise), but I did find something that I thought I could modify to do the job. Ebay had a listing for an aluminium turbo intercooler pipe that was almost the right size. The outside diameter was spot on but the wall thickness was greater. I bought one to see if I could make it fit as it was only $21 with free shipping. I had to hone the inside of the end that slips over the engine exhaust but the other end on the exhaust flange fitted without modification. The only other work was to cut it to size and drill three holes. The polished finish is an extra bonus.

Here is the intercooler pipe alongside the old one:

modified turbo intercooler pipe

And here is it fitted to the engine:

[Collector Inspector]

BnC