Saving Old Seagulls

Hi Guys
I know this has been talked about before but I'm not sure what you mean when you talk about "just before TDC and the likes". I now know where TDC is, thanks to Chris.
The situation is, I've just got an FPC which looks good, but with close inspection is very dirty inside, under the flywheel pulley it's all white powdery. I have just been checking things over and find there's no spark. The plug sparks on my FP, so that's fine. I put a test meter on plug cap and in at the points and I get a reading, so I assume the HT lead is ok. Now setting points is not my scene as I tried turning the flywheel with the pulley off, turned my head to look at the meter and let the tip of my finger slip between one of the openings just as I gave it a good spin , I'm just back from the hospital, lol. Can someone take me through the "Dummies" step by step on how to get my points to the place where I should check/adjust them. When I say dummy, I mean it on this job. I have feeler guages in mm, which one is .5, is it 05 which is paper thin, or is it a combination of 20 & 30. Don't laugh, at 53yrs I'm just learning. I understand the way of opening the points and closing them via the two screws, it's just getting them to the right position to do so, and getting the right guage.
Sorry for taking up your time guys, believe me, your help has astonished a lot of people on what I've achieved so far.

Many Thanks
Gerard

About the thickness of a hacksaw blade! Just turn the flywheel with lid off and watch until the points are at their widest (once per revolution) and then adjust so feeler guage just drags slightly when sliding in the gap. Petty hard to get really accurate as when tightening screw they tend to move again. I wouldn't worry about TDC or 20 degrees b4. some of my motors run better at smaller gap and some with larger ie between 10thou and 30tho... I kid you not! I'm 53 too.

Hope you don't have a dud coil........ Heard about using a socket and electric drill to re energise the magnetic fields? Scary shit when it starts! I use vice grips to hold metal part of spark plug to metal part of motor that way you will be able to see spark.

Thanks Hugz. Yeah I've read about the drill thing, do you need to have the spark plug in, can it not be done without the plug. I don't fancy a trip back to the hospital, knowing my luck when it started up.

I had a very poor spark on my Century and tried the socket and drill thing. It does work . Take the plug out though. I sprayed some wd40 down the plug hole .
Only use a cordless drill and you will need a steel bar to suit the socket end and turned to take the drill chuck. Wap it up to full speed for 5 minutes , remove the whole thing before switching off the drill otherwise it tends to loosen the flywheel nut.
regards
skyetoyman

Totally amazing! You've guessed, I've just done the electric drill job and what a spark I'm getting. That's unbelievable how this works.
Got my points done ok too. In fact I checked the points on one of my FPs and it was wrong, now I've got a great spark on it too.

Thanks for the help guys.

Gerard

An update on my earlier post, it took two pulls to hear the lovely sound of a purring seagull.
Is it me, or does it sound smoother when the clutch is not engaged?

Got a couple of small tweeks to do otherwise I've got a sweet FPC running good.

Gerard
Ps got a fright using a piece of nylon rope to pull start, the rope snagged itself and almost took my arm off when the engine kicked in. Please not my error!

Been a few posts about mishaps with ropes. General consensus is that you should use the seagull one with round plastic handle that slips out of your hand and is less likely to rip your eye out on the rebound.

Mind you I still use a bit of gum tree and have had no probs tho I do recall someone had a rope flick back into the tank causing a dent. Remember how when starting a car with a crank handle you should never wrap your thumb around the back.... maybe the same with a standard timber handle.

Seems rougher in a bin in gear, wait until you are on the water and it will be a lot smoother.

never had a problem with a starting rope
the main problem you can have is having the rope to long, 2 wraps around is usually enough

Try this:

When starting your gull take the rope 3 times around the pulley. First hold it against the compression and than give it a good hard pull, but not violently. The trick is: first hold it against the compression! than the chance to get a kick back is much smaller. Good luck!

Albert