Saving Old Seagulls

I've just obtained a 1973 Forty Plus Short Shaft from ebay. It needs a bit of a fettle but I've had it running with about 3 hours of work.

I'm blogging the fettling here: http://soggysailor.blogger.com.

Couple of questions have cropped up:

1. Leaking fibre washer on the fuel intake to the carburettor (http://soggy-sailor.blogspot.com/2015/0 ... lling.html) - how important is the thickness of the fibre washers?

• Choke - mine is metal - I read online they are normally plastic?

• Rust on the drive leg - - do I just clean it up and paint & prime?

• Colours - It looks like the bracket may have been painted green - would that have been the original colour? Where else was painted?

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Washer thickness should not be that critical, replacements are available.

Lots of the chokes are metal.

Rust on drive leg, only real cure is replating, but that creates other issues, If you are happy with a painted leg paint it, or look for a good replacement which can be cheaper.

Transom bracket is normally bronze colour (have seen plated silver colour), the green that you can see is verdigris, or copper carbonate. When the bronze bracket corrodes it goes green. "where else was painted" Flywheel bronze/gold coloured Hammerite, gearbox and prop silver smooth Hammerite, cylinder block black.

H-A

Hi, just marking my place with interest. My recently acquired Forty Plus was made in 1974 and although it runs well it has suffered cosmetically, the drive tube is very pitted and the black paint on the block has mostly peeled off!
As H-A says the green on the transom bracket is verdigris rather than paint.
Good luck with the project.
Davy

Horsley-Anarak wrote: Washer thickness should not be that critical, replacements are available.

Thanks. Mine look too thin so I will get some fatter ones.

Horsley-Anarak wrote: Rust on drive leg, only real cure is replating, but that creates other issues, If you are happy with a painted leg paint it, or look for a good replacement which can be cheaper.

So was it originally chrome plated? Or some other electro-plate? I assume replating would need the leg removed as needs to be in a bath of plating solution. It is possible to plate using a sponge soaked in plating solution but not sure I'd trust it for something this big or going in salty brine...

Horsley-Anarak wrote: Transom bracket is normally bronze colour (have seen plated silver colour), the green that you can see is verdigris, or copper carbonate. When the bronze bracket corrodes it goes green. "where else was painted" Flywheel bronze/gold coloured Hammerite, gearbox and prop silver smooth Hammerite, cylinder block black.

OK Great, So is there any need to paint the bracket or is it best to just let it have a slight verdigris

The bracket can be stripped down and easily cleaned using a rotary wire brush in a drill, or soaking in a caustic solution for a few days, followed by a quick run with the wire brush again. they clean up nicely.

Grhhh - nothing ever quite goes to plan...

http://soggy-sailor.blogspot.com/2015/0 ... -fail.html

So when I get the broken HT Lead Sorted - what more can I do to sort the water issue? How long can I run it without the water pumping?

I shut the engine down to idle, turned off the fuel supply and covered the air intake waiting for her to cut out. She didn't - she point blank refused to die (curious that an engine can seemingly run with no fuel and no air!) Worrying the block would overheat I let the hose I had running to top up the 40litre bucket run over the block. Eventually she spluttered to a stop.

Look for a crankcase leak, near tiller arm is a good place to start, or worn bearings.

H-A

The most often reason for poor or no water circulation is blocked up water passages in the cylinder block. I would do this on every new engine I see.

Remove the head, and head gasket, and you will see the waterways where cooling water circulates. It will be full of crud which will mainly be corrosion build up. to remove use a small screwdriver and a hammer to carefully chip out the crud in the waterways. when finished clean any remaining loose crud and reassemble the head. Note that head bolts can seize and shear...

This will almost certainly sort your lack of water circulation. One other thing to check, is the water pipe in the exhaust connected to the water pump housing inside the exhaust, also is the pipe itself completely clear? This pipes water from the pump to the block, so it's critical.

Its OK! She's pumping water!

Replacement HT Lead arrived and tested in deeper water and she's pumping fine.

http://soggy-sailor.blogspot.com/2015/0 ... water.html

Future polishing and painting etc will follow...