Saving Old Seagulls

Hullo
Took my century for a good 2 hour run yesterday(in 2 hour long runs with some sailng in between)
It ran and started pretty good, though I noticed some fuel leakage at the bottom ofthe crankcase /top of the drice shaft
I'm going to give the bolts a tighten, but how dire is it?
thanks

PS Thanks to Billyboy for the inspiration I polished up one of my brass tanks to an unholy sheen!
and did some polishing on the flywheel..whilst running, letting the gull do the work

Hey Bruce
Never encountered that before?
It did have a slight leak(very slight not pouring out or even bubbling) in the seam where the tiller arm attaches, as is common
I'm pretty sure though that the lower leak is seperate,,or at least it looked it
I can have another look when I go back to where my motors live

M -
I'll take a stab at this. All my 'Gulls ooze around that seam. What I think is going on is oil gets pushed past the lower crank bushing - no seals, remember - and onto the top of the drive shaft where it tends to get slung into that drive tube joint. I suppose you could try making a gasket or sealing it with some sort of goo. But you'll be defeating one of Seagulls most celebrated engineering features. "If it's covered with oil, it won't corrode."

Thanks Todd
I hadn't noticed it on my other gulls so I was wondering if it was sign of some ailment
It's good to know I'm not alone, nor does it seem to be a problem..hurrah
Happily, as a result, I too will not corrode..or at least my hands.

Well
I might be calling it a year for sailing...I made it into November!
So maybe I'll pull the bottom end off and look at the top 'o the drive shaft ( top 'o the driveshaft to ye! )
Hey Bruce (and or any of you knowledgable folks) You're referring to the lower crankcase bushing yes (I'll look at my shop manual too) Shoulds I just look for excessive play and wear? Like yourself none of my other gulls leak from this area so I think having a look would be good..I do have another entire crankcase for this century
It was a rebuild from two by a motor enthusiast..not sure if he was an "expert" though ...I certainly am not.

do you notice that there is always a wet oily residue inside the magneto baseplate where the coil and points are? if so this is another indication that the bushings are starting to wear. might be time to dig out that spare.

Bruce I've had way more top bush problems than bottom bush, with Seagulls.

125's & 170's give the top main bearing bush a fairly hard life, as do all the Wartime & earlier seagulls with the "coolie hat flywheels".

Could this be a Northern Hemisphere thing?

Are those giant termite nests?

[quote="Collector Inspector"]I would not get too carried away with "Oily Residue" in the ignition plate insides Mate.

there is a fair bit of difference between the normal lubrication and build up in there and the wet stuff to which i am referring. so humour me mutineer and check it anyway eh?

I thought it was a black cat in a coal cellar.

(all looks black to me)

H-A