Seagull wings clipped

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Bosunof

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My old seagull has been a faithful servant but has now seized solid.

I must replace her cos it was the best bit of kit on board. She was so reliable. Here is the question. How do I stop the next one seizing up? I cant keep taking it off to take home on Ryanair so she stays on the pushpit.

Good ideas and solutions will be rewarded with real gratitude.

Cheers
 
You dont say what model!

Surprising. They are usually so oily that there is little likelihood of them seizing I'd have thought.

What fuel mix are you using? Are you stopping it by letting the carb run dry. If so maybe better to adjust the throttle cable so that it will stop if the tiller is lowered.

Spray a bit of neat two stroke oil into the carb as you shut it down using a trigger spray bottle perhaps.

If you are leaving it out on the rail all the time maybe a storm cowl on the air intake will help .. depends on the carb fitted though.

Ask on the Saving old Seagulls forums for advice
 
Bosunof said:
My old seagull has been a faithful servant but has now seized solid.

I must replace her cos it was the best bit of kit on board. She was so reliable. Here is the question. How do I stop the next one seizing up? I cant keep taking it off to take home on Ryanair so she stays on the pushpit.

Good ideas and solutions will be rewarded with real gratitude.

Cheers
Click to expand...

These old lumps are so basic that I would be very surprised indeed if you were not able to free it off and get it running again. What caused it to seize? Try pouring some diesel or WD40 down the plug'ole, get the carb off and fill the crankcase with the same. Leave it to stand 24 hours, and once drained off you might well find it can be brought back to life.

If of course you ran it with no water it might have melted inside. If so then it has had it.

If you had left it out on the pulpit (it would remain there unattended about 3 minutes in some parts of the Solent) and found it locked up when you got back then there is really nothing wrong with it as long as you can free it off. Next time fit a waterproof cover over it - or the new one.
 
Mine came with a thick hairy canvas bag with a drawstring and a slot for the tiller, well oiled. I can't help shuddering each time I put it on (the Seagull) imagining a hangman using it.
 
have soaked her in WD40
Click to expand...
WD40 is a water displacing fluid ... hence the designation WD
It might work but you would be better using a proper penetrating oil such as Plus Gas.
 
I've got one similarly seized, a Featherweight. I believe it's salt solidifying, but this was two years ago, and I've almost bathed it in oli, down the bore etc. I've tried to remove the lower part of the leg, but in doing so managed to snap one of the two bolts. However I've got a feeling it's still worth persuing just need to put a bit more energy into resolving it.

IanC
 
I don't think anyone has a really accurate handle on how many were made.

I can, however, tell you that from 1931 when the first Marston Seagull was marketed until the outbreak of World War II the production was an astonishingly low 200 per year. Just over 10,000 were made during the war, and production dropped off briefly post war. (My numbers have been collated from a survey of magneto serials from 1931 to 1945 - Villiers numbered them all as a straight sequence unlike Marston's and British Seagull.)

The absolute peak of production was mid seventies, with almost (but not quite) 25,000, but the Japanese products were to clobber the firm soon after and by the end of the decade they were down to 5,000 per year.

Towards the end they were making a few thousand at best, with the last 'tail end' of production in the hundreds.

Huge numbers survive, many are still in use. There's a 1978 Model 110 (Silver Century with forward/neutral/reverse) on my transom at the moment, only this afternoon I have been sorting out a new cork in her fuel tap. She drives my Pageant along nicely.

The older the motor, the better made. I have a 1936 Marston 102 that out performs later - outwardly almost identical - models.
 
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Bosunof said:
My old seagull has been a faithful servant but has now seized solid.

I must replace her cos it was the best bit of kit on board. She was so reliable. Here is the question. How do I stop the next one seizing up? I cant keep taking it off to take home on Ryanair so she stays on the pushpit.

Good ideas and solutions will be rewarded with real gratitude.

Cheers
Click to expand...

You could try the forum at:

http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/index.html

I quite enjoyed listening to the guy on furled sails:

http://www.furledsails.com/article.php3?article=713
 
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