Hi All,
Very new to stripping down seagulls, so have been using both the owners spares book and service manual as my guide, and thats worked so far. Now i have hit a problem, i am working on the gearbox and am trying to seperate the bevel pinion from the square drive shaft. I have removed the split pin and used WD4, heat and hammer, there would seem to be a fair amount of rust on the drive shaft. Is it a case of more heat and a bigger hammer? Or has anyone got a trick up thier sleeve.
There is a rule in Seagull restoring. If it is OK don't touch it! Is there a problem with the bevel pinion or you just want to take out the shaft to paint it etc? If it is OK, then leave it as it. There is great chances to bend the exhaust outlet on the gearbox and that would certainly be a big problem. That lead to no water circulation.
If the is a serious reason to remove the shaft then heat and hammer is the key. Maybe soaking in lubricants or even coke may help.
But even if you do all the right things there is a chance nothing to work. That happened once to me and I just quit.
You may find the easiest way is to grind the drive shaft to the point where you can chisel the drive shaft off the pinion. It would require a replacement shaft, unless your engine is long shaft, and you don't mind losing a couple of inches
You need 2 lengths of round bar 4 inches, 100mm, longer than the square drive shaft, one 6mm & one 8mm dia, sharpen the 6mm one to a screwdriver like end.
Now clean out the rust & oil deposits from the center of the drive shaft with the sharp end of the 6mm bar, old fuel mix will help this muck pour out, this can take 15 minutes until you reach the top of the pinion, wash the center clean with whatever you have to hand.
Place the top of the drive shaft into the vice, only hold on the top 3 inches as this has been cyanide hardened & will resist crushing far better than the unhardened center section, now slide the 8mm bar down the drive shaft until it reaches the pinion, give the top of the 8mm bar a few good hits with a hammer if this fails to move the pinion at all, spray some WD40 down the hole & heat the bottom 2 inches with a gas torch & hammer again, if your worried about the heat damaging the pinion gear, immerse that in a tin of water standing on bricks, while you heat the drive shaft.
Take care on early Seagulls as they had thinner walled none hardened drive shafts & have had more years to get fragile.
Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.
Or has anyone got a trick up thier sleeve.
