Saving Old Seagulls

I am facing a problem and I need some help. I start assembling after restoring my WSPCL 18 66 CC6 and found out that the square drive shaft looks like it is a little bit sorter than it should be (bought as spares). I can't understand why. The drive shaft case is 62cm long and the square drive shaft is 72cm long. If it was around 75cm long it would be OK, but now the crankshaft does not get in the square drive shaft properly. Do I have a square drive shaft or a drive shaft casing that does not fit?
My WSL 11 O8 EE7 has the same length drive shaft case but the drive shaft is shorter, around 69cm and is OK as the gearbox is direct.
If it is easy for you tell me please the dimensions of drive shaft and case for both my engine.

Thanks in advance.

Could anyone please measure one or both distances appeared in the photo in a WSPCL? I want see if the drive shaft length is correct.
Thanks in advance!

Hi Stelios

Sorry I don't have the sizes to answer your question but with a look at the picture you showed us, what came to my mind is you have the wrong shaft, ie. a standard length shaft in a long shaft engine. Maybe one of the guys will put us straight on this, but that's my thought.

Thank you for your response. I checked lengths with John SOS and a member from the forum and seems that my parts is correct. I don't know, I have to disasembe and check... Great confusion!

Not sure if it helps but my WPCL (same gear box) dimensions are:

Partial length 580mm.

Total length 610mm (2 foot).
What program do you use to add comments etc to photos? I want to do that too

Now I'm wondering why my century has an amal carb. I thought only the silver's had those. Either someone has changed block and carb or the 'S' was left off the engine number.

WPCL 654K2 which makes it October 72 so it can be either (ie WSPCL) unless the last of the WP's had the amal carb??

Probably mixed parts! The programm I used for comments is the "paint" from Windows. The only difference in lengths is that the total is about 62cm. The partial is 58,3cm and if I push the shaft case a little bit more then it will get 58cm. But I don't think that this makes any difference.

I am starting to cut the square drive tubes up and weld a piece of 3/8 silver steel round bar in between two good pieces. This allows me to get the correct length drive shafts and also have good squares to fit the gearbox and crankshaft ends. They seem to work well, no trouble yet.

The ends of the drive shafts were often hardened, if your cutting & shunting these it might pay to harden the box section ends especialy on clutched motors!

Hello to everyone and thank you for your contribution!
Today I found some time to check my engine. Well the problem wasn't the drive shaft. I open the gearbox and found that the pinion gear spins when I spin the flywheel. I started inspecting the gearbox. After some search on the forum for a exploded diagram of the gearbox I came to the conclusion that both washers are missing. The problem was caused by the one behind the gearbox plug. Apart from sealing the gearbox, it holds the crown wheel in touch with the pinion gear. So everything now is clear and many curses were applied to the previous owner