Stop! Stop! Stop!

[ronsurf]

Since my life was quiet and uneventful, I've bought a Seagull (40 plus). After an hour I got it working (new fuel, clean points, clean fuel line), and it runs very well. Well, it runs, anyway. My question is: how do I stop it? Not in an emergency, but generally?!! Do I really have to wait for the thing to stall....?

 

[PeteCooper]

If set up correctly I believe that you just close the throttle.
This site: http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/ will give you any info you need on Seagulls.

 

[wongaero]

put your hand over the air intake hole in the carburettor, or if you're really showing off, turn the fuel tap off about a minute or two before you want it to die - at least by doing this it doesn't spill fuel all over the car boot as soon as you lay it down

 

[rjp]

I fully agree with the previous post and second the website suggestion. However an alternative stopping technique is to simply put your hand over the air intake - never fails for me.

John

 

[wongaero]

Anyone had any good seagull injuries while on the subject? By modern standards putting your hand over a hole a few inches from an unguarded flywheel AND a hot exhaust AND an HT lead is slightly alarming...!

 

[dnickj]

I did break my wrist once when the start chord became stuck on the flywheel and the plastic end hit me hard - then i bought the optional recoil kit - did get my own back and used it as an emergeny anchor - washed it off after spray of WD and it still started

 

[Searush]

It's not that hard. If you set the throttle so that is cuts out when closed then you can fine adjust the slow speed by lifting & lowering the tiller. Very handy for slow speed manouvering.

If you are making a regular dinghy trip you'll soon work out where to close the fuel tap so it just runs out. Great fun when you do it too soon cos the tide's stronger than you think! keep your oars handy!

 

[Noddy]

Stuff the whole thing up your jumper and leap into the water. This will both arrest the flywheel and short out some of the electrics.

 

[Ecosse120]

I asked a similar question last year (i pulled out the HT lead /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif) Somebody said that you can fit an on/off switch. If you search under Ecosse120 you should find the link. I am doing a mixture of petrol tap and hand over air filter !!

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
If you are making a regular dinghy trip you'll soon work out where to close the fuel tap so it just runs out.

[/ QUOTE ] That's what I try to do. Anyway you need to run the carb dry so that you don't spill petrol every where when you lift it off.

The SOS website, already mentioned, tells you that you can adjust the throttle so that there is fine control by raising and lowering the tiller. I have mine set so that it idles normally with the tiller horizontal but stops if I lower the tiller.

 

[Tranona]

All this brings back happy memories of my time working for Seagul!!

The advice about adjusting idle so that raising or lowering the tiller gives fine control is good - the bending and straightening of the bowden caable causes this. Stopping by hand over air intake is approved as is turning off the fuel.

Lucky people like me had engines with electronic ignition, enclosed flywheels and best of all a clutch so you could knock it out of gear and run it dry in neutral while you loaded gear onto the boat. Such sophistication in 1978!

Happy memories! Still have it and run it in the test tank at the club a couple of times a year just to make sure it works.

 

[Blueboatman]

Elfin safety would love this---You can stall a seagull by laying the palm of your hand along the exposed flywheel in the direction of rotation...

 

[Chrusty1]

Beats me why anybody would want to bother with the smelly, noisy, unreliable lumps of scrap iron? To the poster that used it as an emergency anchor........you did everything right there...............







except you should have left it with Davy Jones! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[vyv_cox]

A promisingly offensive post from a new user. Keep it up - a fight is always good to watch.

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
smelly, noisy, unreliable

[/ QUOTE ] Smelly, not noticed that they smell, the fuel does but its no different to the fuel used by other outboards.
Noisy... noise is unwanted sound... there's never a time when a Seagull is not music to the ears IMO.
Unreliable.... it always starts and runs when called upon to do so even with next to no maintenance .... that's what I call reliable!

I suggest you go post your ridiculous comments on the SOS forums. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Tranona]

Thanks for leaping to Seagull's defence! although they don't really need any support as they speak for themselves.

My favourite in house story from my time there concerned the original owner John Weyhope. He had a way of dealing with customers who had diffficulty with getting on with their engines. Consisted of a polite letter inferring that they obviously were not suited to being a Seagull owner, and included a cheque £25 17s 6d for the engine and a postal order for £2 10s to cover return carriage. Understand it never failed - either the engine was back within a week or the owner persevered and returned the cheque with an equally polite letter saying he now understood what it was all about!

In my own days travelling around the States as Seagull's "man" I was called upon to deal with troublesome customers, many of whom had spent a fortune with mechanics trying to cure non-existent problems. Engines always started and ran perfectly after my magic touch (which was usually to do with the spark or dirty fuel), much to the delight of agents and owners.

As I said in my first post in this thread - happy days! - and whats more it prepared me well for 10 years of Stuart Turner ownership.

 

[toad]

With a jap outboard you are just a driver, with a Seagull you are a marine engineer. Now wheres that quote come from ?

 

[oldharry]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
smelly, noisy, unreliable

[/ QUOTE ] Smelly, not noticed that they smell, the fuel does but its no different to the fuel used by other outboards.
Noisy... noise is unwanted sound... there's never a time when a Seagull is not music to the ears IMO.

Unreliable.... it always starts and runs when called upon to do so even with next to no maintenance .... that's what I call reliable!


[/ QUOTE ]

Noty often I disagree with you VicS, but when it comes to Seagulls -IMHO they have much in common with their avian namesakes.

Smelly- not if you like the blue cloud of fumes, the stench of petrol, and the vile smell of an oiled up exhaust.

Noise is a matter of opinion - there is I grant you something nostalgic about the unique and distinctive noise of the Seagull across the water at 3 miles distant on a calm day.... makes me think of summer holiday as a boy! Close up - like on the end of the dinghy, after 10 minutes it gives me a headache.

Reliability: well there were some good ones about. If you had a good Seagull, you hung on to it, a bit like the Stuart Turners. A good one was worth its weight in gold.... and about as scarce!

Endearing little characteristics like: never put it on a dinghy less than 8 ft long, 'cos it would never start. Why? Because when you went aft to start it, it pushed the exhaust leg too far under, and back pressure would prevent it starting (see the Saving Old Seagulls for more info). Like the 10:1 oil mix of the early ones, which left a visible trail of unburnt oil on the water. Like the brand new,ex works 40+ I once bought which took 20 minutes to start - every time. Returned to ther makers, even the Seagull engineers could not start it, or work out why it wouldnt. (Some Stuarts were like that - about 1 in every 12 or so). Like the fact that you stopped it with the throttle, that meant you either came hurtling in far too fast, trying to judge the moment to shut it down on the throttle - too late and you arrived with a loud thud, or too soon and have an undiginified scramble for the paddle to make the last few feet - wind and tide allowing!

It is said that the Brussels bureautwats ban on 2 stroke outboards was based on research done using an Silver Century, as being the most polluting outboard they could find.

PBO did a review of dinghy outboards many years ago. In ALL respects, the Seagull 40+ they reviewed came last: in spite of its large prop, it was the least powerful, had the lowest static pull, and was the heaviest of the 2hp motors under test.

IMHO interesting relics of a bygone age, but about as relevant to modern boating as a Rippingill No 2 cooker, with no place in the environmentally aware society of today.

 

[Victorious]

[ QUOTE ]
hand over a hole a few inches from an unguarded flywheel AND a hot exhaust AND an HT lead is slightly alarming...!

[/ QUOTE ]

would only be seriously alarming if you were maybe bouncing about in a heavy duty paddling pool, In the pitch dark ... with a couple of drunk mates...
Oh....

/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[VicS]

"A good one was worth its weight in gold.... and about as scarce!"

Lucky then, Ive got 2, a 40+ and a Feartherweight. Both over 30 years old.

"never put it on a dinghy less than 8 ft long, 'cos it would never start"

Featherweight is used on a dinghy under 8ft and with me in the back I have to be careful not to get water coming over the transom top. Seagull still starts though and no it does not have a depth adjusting collar fitted.

"10:1 oil mix of the early ones, which left a visible trail of unburnt oil on the water"

I have converted both of mine to 25:1 mix They did smoke a bit before that especially when I was running with straight SAE 30 oil but not now on TCW3 oil.

"trying to judge the moment to shut it down on the throttle "

The secret is getting the idle adjustment right!

It is getting heavy though I must admit. It used to be light enough to hold in one had while climbing aboard from the dinghy but it is getting too heavy for that now. I may have to invest in a lighter one, but I dont want anything more powerful, when it's choppy I cannot run at full throttle as it is.