Saving Old Seagulls

Evening gents,

Been off the site for a while but now have a new toy - a elderly neighbour of my dad wanted to sell his 14ft boat, trailer and Seagull for a give away price (£75!) It has not seen the water for the last 5 years and was taking up space & wanted it gone so naturally I jumped at the chance!

The engine number is LLSR 6808L - doing a search for the model the site does not recognise it.
Will be having a tinker with it tomorrow and cleaning it up -engine came with spare ht lead, pull cord, spring and sparkplug and books.

Wow Rob, that's almost too good to be true.
Nice boat too and with a cover.

Type in the number again but drop the "R" and it comes up with a 58/59 build date.
It used to be a longshaft (according to the serial number hence the "L") but looks to be more standard shaft going by your pics. so someone has been "playing" at some point.

As long as it's got a spark, it should go well with that boat.

p.s. how's the FP going these days!

Jon

Evening Jon,

Hope you have been well, I unfortunately had to sell my previous boat and motor to pay some bills so have been without a boat for a while.

I think engine is a long shaft as it has height adjustable collar on it, the previous owner used boat and engine together in Poole Harbour for fishing and on Christchurch river for pleasure.

The engine is in really good condition if it is a 58/59 - apparently it was professionally serviced 5 years ago and was used once before being put into storage.

So given its age the recoil start was added a lot later?

The boat is in ok condition, would benefit from a lick of paint on the inside, the hull should come up ok with a good clean. Trailer is good but sounds loud when being towed so will have to look into why.

if the trailer sounds loud when towing it could be the wheel bearings need looking at

Remove the cap/cover from 1 of your trailer wheel bearings, full of rusty grease? spin wheel while trailer in raised position, noisey?

Remove filthy grease from cover & fill wheel bearing cover with Sae 140 & replace in hub it & ensure it's all the way home, now spin wheel, doesn't that sound a lot better?

This is a get you home measure not a fix

Charles uk wrote:Remove the cap/cover from 1 of your trailer wheel bearings, full of rusty grease? spin wheel while trailer in raised position, noisey?

Remove filthy grease from cover & fill wheel bearing cover with Sae 140 & replace in hub it & ensure it's all the way home, now spin wheel, doesn't that sound a lot better?

This is a get you home measure not a fix

Good tip, will be looking at trailer shortly.

The offside wheel bearings are shot to bits so will need replacement.

The engine turns over fine but no spark, hopefully points just need a clean - fingers crossed.

Hi Rob.
Easy things to get sorted out. Bearings wont be much for that trailer.(another little tip here,see if you can get hold of some new bearing caps with a grease nipple fitted into them,you could retro-fit this of course on your current bearing caps. It makes re-greasing the bearings that little bit easier in the future)

The motor should clean up nicely and cough back into life with a little coaxing here and there.
Yep, the recoil start is definitely a later addition, as is the tank. (normally oval brass not steel)
But as mentioned before, going by your pics it looks like it's been "played with" at some point.
My own LLS longshaft measures 31 inches from the centre of the prop to the top of the exhaust tube
yours looks like around 26 inches (thereabouts) or standard shaft (ish) which could have been done whilst the motor was in for "refurb" (just a wild guess mind you)

Keep us posted with any updates
we like pics

jon

Please do not mess about with the bearings and ignore all advice above.
You need new bearings for both sides.
If you never put them in the water, they should last years. If you do submerge them, then 3-4 years life at most.
The wheels you have are standard 8 inch boat wheels, the hubs are also standard.
Do not waste time replacing the bearings themselves, get new hubs complete with bearings, about £35 a pair on ebay.
Bearings alone from a bearing supplier may be about the same price.
The hubs will have grease nipples on the outside.
There are plenty of Youtubes showing how to replace the hubs.
Pack them with proper Marine grade, water resistant grease, not sae 140 oil

I replace my Sprite trailer bearings every couple of years, I use the same hubs cost of bearings about £12.

Do both sides, mine has grease nipple on hub.

You missed the point about 140 oil Mike, that is a get you home trick when buying a trailer that has been standing a long time.
Fill the cap with oil and stick it on, gets you home, so you can change the bearings at your leisure.

H-A

On my trailer the wheel goes straight onto the stub and has bearings in it. So will need to replace bearings or change wheels for ones suitable for hub fitment.

Those bearings look like ball races not taper rollers, you should find the part number stamped or etched on the bearing edge, you will also need a new oil seal that fits on top of the inner bearing, use the 2BR version, it's a 10 minute job to replace on each wheel, also check tyres for perished side walls.

A very nice boat for peanuts!

Thanks gents,

Points cleaned this morning and we now have a spark!