Saving Old Seagulls

Hi all can any body tell me , how to undo the cable from the carb so as to attempt to free the cable and soak in wd40
regards ian

You dont say what carb!

Mine (Villiers) just unhitches from the piston and pulls out . Leaves the adjuster behind IIRC

I dont remember needing any instuctions when I replaced the old cable many moons ago. Just took the old one off and fitted the new one!.

Alternatively release the cable from the throttle control end, suspend it vertically by tying it to something, make a small 'reservoir' with plasticine or blue tack at the top end of the cable outer and fill with WD40 and leave overnight

If it is an early Amal that can be a bit tricky. I'm assuming that you have discounted the slide has seized up in the body of the carby? At the top of the carby is a knurled threaded cap. Above that there is a small adjuster collar that threads into the aforementioned cap. The outer sheathing fits into this but is not attached by any means but can bind when needing to rotate the cap. If you pull the sheathing up it will pull the slide up (assuming the cable has seized in the closed position ie slide all the way down). If it does come up you will then be able to unscrew the knurled cap and remove cable and slide. Compress the slide against the spring and the end of the cable (with the knob on the end) will, with a bit of fiddling, come out. If the cable is seized in the opened position you won't have enough slack to remove cable from slide and in all likelihood will need to cut and replace.

I've seen a seagull with no lever but just a loop of throttle cable straight out of the carby. Worked too... but a tad inconvenient. Gets you home tho!

Hugo.

Waggles wrote:make a small 'reservoir' with plasticine or blue tack at the top end of the cable outer and fill with WD40 and leave overnight

When short of plasticine or Blu Tack do as old bikers desiring a smooth clutch.........fill small rubber party balloon or similar latex item with thin oil or whatever and secure in an inverted attitude around elevated end of cable with rubber band........

Peter