nothing was preventing me from test-running the Seagull,
apart form the fact that I live in a second floor apartment.
(the kitchen did a perfect job, doubling up as workplace)
So, last Friday, I took her to my girlfriends place to fire her up.
(the Seagull, I mean)
As expected, the fuel tap was leaking like mad.
I didn't want to mess with leaking fuel in my apartment,
so I decided to deal with this in the open air.
Remembering S.O.S.'s good advise,
I removed the tap and put it into boiling water for a few minutes.
Then I soaked the cork in oil before replacing it.
It still leaked, altough a lot less than before.
So 'plan B' came into action,
whereby I used a tiny bit of Teflon tape between the cork and the knob to tighten things up.
This did the job, stopping any more fuel from leaking.
And then it was "Showtime", so to speak.
Affraid of flooding her, I didn't use the carb plunger at first,
so it took me a full three pulls before she awoke into the evening silence . . .
(by then it was about 9 pm, hence the blurry pic, sorry)
I was very, VERY, happily surprised that it all worked out first time,
since I had the carb completely dismantled,
including removal of the jet-needle,
and I was affraid this would need further adjusting and fine-tuning.
But it didn't.
The little engine was purring like a kitten!
Well, a kitten with a smoking habit . . .
thanks to a 10 : 1 overdose of two-stroke oil
My girlfriend was kind enough to lend me her best dustbin,
so that our little Seagull would keep her head cool.
As one can see in the photograph,
even running at tick-over, the waterflow is excellent.
All went very well until the gear was engaged.
With a persistent 'clunk' the propeller got into action.
No big deal, until yours truly decided to open up the throttle a bit . . .
The whirlpool created was more than the dustbin could take,
and it litterally started to spin with the vortex !
It was then and there that I learned how hard it is to get the clutch working with a running engine.
I didn't manage to disengage the gear before the prop made contact with the bin, leaving a fierce cut into the plastic.
This ended the testrun a wee bit prematurely. . .
The recently applied Hammerite on the prop didn't quite survive this close encounter,
but apart from that and a destroyed bin, everything else was OK.
The girlfriend was very understanding, and alleged rumours about a bump on my head and her rolling pin are hereby officially denied . . .
