Found it in the River...

[westcoaster]

Wandered down to the Fraser River in Burnaby BC. Peeked inside an abandoned boat and pulled out a Seagull...

The Fraser Fiver is Tidal at this location. I have known about the motor sitting there for about the last two months. Tides, timing and a bit of apathy got in the way of me getting back to pull it out. H

Had I got on it immediately, I may have saved myself some effort...

The thought has occurred to me that all I may be doing here is performing an autopsy rather than trying to get it running again. The list of things I found so far are broken tiller handle, I'm guessing that it had a leaky head gasket and fuel float based on the goop pasted on these parts.
I disconnected the exhaust tube only to find another tube (water coolant?) disconnected from the base of the head. There was plenty wrong long before it was abandoned in the river to rot away....

It is turning over now, the Fraser is a silty river. This thing needs to be pulled apart to clean out the sand.

Problem I'm having immediately is getting the top plate off where the ignition coil mounts and the gearbox on the bottom of the shaft.

[westcoaster]

Right,
serial number FPL 747EE3

May 1973

[Nudge]

After All that and it still turns over!
You might get most of the parts sorted, but I dont think the coil will be any good now.

The boat looked OK. did you get that too?

[westcoaster]

I don't think it was in the river for very long when I first noticed it.

The boat is still in the river. I have no plans to retrieve that.

Pulled the head, gently tapped the piston with a block of wood to bottom dead center then gently back and forth with the flywheel to get the piston up to top dead center with intermittent generous rinses of PB Blaster. I got fairly lucky where the piston was blocking both the intake and exhaust ports.
The coolant tube was disconnected from the base of the head (just now got all that apart.) that happened before I got to it. This poor motor has sure suffered some neglect....

Bright yellow goo in the gearbox. Pretty sure it's not supposed to look like that...

Most of the important bolts I need to take apart are not stuck which is impressive in itself.

I'm going to be optimistic about the ignition coil....
Got nothing to loose by stuffing it back in there and trying.

I haven't cleaned it up yet.

[Nudge]

Yup you might be lucky with the coil.
The yellow goo will be the oil... maybe the incorrect oil. Drain the gear box, take it apart (if you can) and give it a good clean.

I would would work on the power head first, if you cant get the enging running then the rest will only be good for parts.

It would be interisting to see if you can get it going.

[Charles uk]

If you get that running with a minimum expenditure on new parts, we will have to come up with an award for you!

Getting this far without breaking anything is very impressive!

[westcoaster]

Huh, Better than I thought!

[westcoaster]

Looking Better!

[westcoaster]

Now it starts getting ugly....

This is the crank shaft bearing surfaces. discoloured but not badly pitted.

[westcoaster]

Now it's ugly....

I don't think I can run on this....



wrist pin from the piston.

[Nudge]

Try cleaning it up a bit. Is it build up or pitted rust. It will go!

[westcoaster]

It's pitted.

It looks to be some chrome covered steel.


That has occurred everywhere that wasn't covered by the bearing. It'll run on that alright, maybe not for very long, but it'll run...
I'm thinking the bearing will get torn up by the roughness of it. I suppose I can find some really fine sandpaper and go at it to smooth things over a bit.


The crank end of the connecting rod is perfect. I'm not even going to pull that end apart.
This has had some work done on it in the past. The head bolts look to be stainless. The back side of the head are not. There was some sort of anti seize/ thread sealer who's smell is familiar on the head bolts (black tar like substance)
I think there is a helicoil down the spark plug hole.

This doesn't appear to have been run much. No ridge in the cylinder and the piston isn't scuffed.


Is the crank case supposed to be sealed? It doesn't appear as this one was sealed at all. (other than the goop on the outside)

[Charles uk]

No sandpaper! that will reduce the diameter where the bearings run, could be fatal!

Polish with fine Scotch-Brite, using your electric drill, & don't starve it of the most viscous 2-stroke oil you can find when in use.

Crankshaft is made from EN40B & I think the wrist pin is the same.

[westcoaster]

Ummmm.....
This is the point in this thread that'll make most cringe...

That looks like a good enough gap right there.... (I don't have a feeler gauge yet)
"It's not just good, It's good enough"
Spun the flywheel by hand and got spark!

[Nudge]

Well I'll be! This has to be the toughest yet!