Oh Dear! What have I done.

[Journeyman]

Well I have bought another Forty, this one does not have an engine number but the crank case on a superficial look resembles the one on my 1967 FP 40 Plus.
The new one has a Featherweight/Minor gear box and a Villiers fly wheel instead of the Wipac on the 1967, it also has a bronze Tiller with the brazed on steel lug rather than the aluminium tiller on the 1967.
Is there any way of dating this from the change of tiller and flywheel?
My Century from 1957 has the same bronze tiller.

Cheers, Dave.

[lodgey62]

You need to get that bike leaned over a bit more,

[Hugz]

Some of the Villier flywheels have a date stamp. Left click.

[Journeyman]

Some of the Villier flywheels have a date stamp.

Thanks Huze, you must have posted while I was typing, will look into that today.

Cheers Dave.

[Journeyman]

No sign of a date on the flywheel inside or out Huze but thanks anyway.
Generally the Featherweight looks in good condition but the gear box is in trouble.
It was heavily corroded inside when I got it open. Previously the thread on the plastic plug had been striped because the thread in the cap was so corroded.

As you can see quite a mess and I also sheared one of the screws off.

After drilling out the broken screw and re-tapping the hole I chased out the plug thread.
As you can see the bevel and crown wheel are pitted. Also there is play in the prop bush and also slight play in the bevel bush.
There is also pitting to the cases internally and also externally at the prop shaft bush.

None of this is terminal so I’ll run it as is for now and see how the rest performs.
But if anyone has a Featherweight box in good condition and willing to sell eventually I’ll replace it.

Dave.

[Charles uk]

The broken screw is the one that holds the pinion bearing in place as well as the end cap.

Some had a small parallel section at the end, not sure on that one as it's an early box check the serial number with John Williams.

[Journeyman]

Thanks Charles,
Yes I was aware that the screw locked the pinion in place and measured up before drilling so I didn’t drill into the pinion but only just touched the bush. It’s also a shorter screw on this end of the Cap.
The trouble is there is no engine number stamped on the crankcase! Will post some photos when I rebuild it and see if anyone can date and identify it from the equipment on it.

Wave, Dave.

[Journeyman]

So she is back together and running well.
There was corrosion around the cap to gearbox joint so I used some fine Carborundum paste to lap that joint in. Then carefully measured up for a new screw. Important to get the length right so it holds both the cap and pinion.
With the cap back on without a gasket I judged the pinion back lash to be about right with the prop shaft pushed in eliminating the end float. So fitted the cap with out a gasket and just used Bue Hylomar.
I’m hoping you can tell me what model I have and the approximate year.

First the tank is oval but has plane end caps, no embossed Seagull, it also has the aluminium winged filler cap.

It has the brass tiller and Villiers throttle lever intended for the round ended throttle cable.

The water inlets are two small holes.

The water impeller is aluminium and held in place by a split pin.

Tank tested and now ready to go.

Any help on dating and model would be appreciated as there is no engine number on the crankcase?
Dave.

[Gannet]

I think that it is an SJM. Probably from the early/mid 1960s The lack of any ident stamping would suggest to me that it has been built up from a spare crankcase by an individual or an agent.

Jeremy

[Journeyman]

Thanks Jeremy, it’s good to hear from someone who has more experience of these outboards than me. I forgot to say that the tiller is bent and I was wondering if the crankcase got damaged at the same time and was replaced by as you suggest a local dealer.

Thanks again for the feedback much appreciated, Dave.

PS. One thing I did was fit a NitrileV-ring oil seal from RS as suggested by someone on the forum, how do they stand up to the debris that gets wraped around the shaft in use.

[Journeyman]

So this Featherweight did not have a very good throttle cable I think it was a cable for a later leaver with two bullet nipple ends, the leaver end didn’t run smoothly and the inner was too long.

A #10 screw is a good fit in the leaver so I drilled a hole for the new wire countersank one end of the hole for the cable end, then cut the screw to length to fit the thickness of the leaver.

The completed leaver end with heat shrink tubing to reinforce and keep the end from kinking and the water out.

On the carburetor end I un-sweated the original nipple and resoldered it on to the new cable.
Both Nipples had countersunk ends so I was able to spread the cable strands into the counter sink with a centre-punch before soldering.

Dave.