Saving Old Seagulls

This is my AC seagull I bought from eBay a year or so ago. It was worth a punt for £50. Some bits are certainly not right, and there are some period fixes, but it's a good sound motor. Good compression, and it has a good steel bayonet cap tank.
It's now all stripped down awaiting a rebuild.

I'm a well seasoned Seagull operator, and a long time lurker on this site . My last rebuild was a 1970's Silver Century, so I wanted something a bit older this time.

Mmm... SD tank, mounts and exhaust. Interesting shape brass clutch lever, I like that. Anyone know the provenance of the lever?

The gearbox is ministry stamped. Faint but readable.

Well, it's certainly got my juices flowing that's for sure.

Yep, some things are not as they should be going by what i have on data so far.
Not entirely sure the gearbox with it's ministry stamping is correct for it though! Nipples on the "wrong" side too (i have others on data that appear with nipples in this configuration as well, so no biggy here)

Hmm, prop-cylinder-thumb throttle- uuuber long tiller to mention a few wrongs.
Nice motor though, looks as though it's been a well loved seagull over the years.

I'm watching with interest to see how it turns out.
Gets my vote every time


Jon

Top buy for £50 that well done. We will look forward to seeing the pics as you work through it. We like pictures..

It looks to be a nice old motor, some updated parts as normal, I have not seen a cylinder casting like that before, with them buttons, Its definitely a little different in places to what you would normally expect to see, interesting.

The carb was very clean, with just a small bit of old fuel in the bowl and fuel tap. Split and rebuilt crank cases. The piston and con rod are in pretty good shape.
This is the motor as it stands at the moment.

Stripped down nicely, top job. It looks like your engine has had a very late replacement block fitted, with the higher carb inlet. Similar to the photo below which is of a late 70s/early 80s spares. The photo below is from the main SOS site re a batch of engines made in the early 80s. Check out the block, which also has the slightly different casting risers on each side.

That's great. I did wonder about the age of the block as it didn't fit in with the rest of the motor.
I'll be cleaning and rebuilding the gearbox and pump housing this week.

I would say that the gearbox is early SD with the nipples on the starboard side as with the ON/OP, it seems that early in the SD production run the gearbox nipples moved to the port side. It would be interesting though to know exactly when?

Could even be a complete SD bottom end. Does the leg have a bronze bush at the very bottom for the gearbox pinion shaft to locate above the impeller?

Yes, it has the bronze bush in the bottom of the drive leg.

If i might jump in here, this is the first real discussion we've had to date with regards to oil nipples and bronze bushes.

I agree (i think) with the nipples located on the "wrong side" as being either late Marston or early SD. I had wondered about this for quite a while. My early SD has the nipples in this configuration too, BUT my C (which is a little bit after the SD's) also has its nipples on the "wrong side", puzzling.

Also, with the bronze bushing in the pump housing (straight out back exhaust)) later A series 102's follow this build spec up to around 49/50 (or another way an 8-9,000 ish serial number) when the "sub ejector" makes its first appearance.
Unless a particular 102 has been messed with, the differences will be fairly obvious. Unfortunately what we tend to see is older motors that have been "repaired" at some point in its life just to keep them going. As is the case AC2986L.
Still a nice looking seagull though.

Looking good so far in the pics.
Any more?

Jon