Saving Old Seagulls

Picked up this 1967 FP last night it’s my first 40 so looking forward to getting it running later. Came with a lot of spares including a spare crank case engine number FP PG556FF9, this is complete with crank rod and piston, anyone know if this is a strait swap?
More when I do some investigations.

Wave, Dave.

A few checks and she fire up third pull and pumped water well right down to tick over. Unfortunately she is not very happy with starting up again when warm, it took quite a few pulls with her not quite catching until she finally got running. This is so different to my other two which are very reliable starters and go first pull when warm.

Something has happened to the crankcase were the tiller is attached, the crankcase is leaking at the joint adjacent to it. That leak of the primary compression is effecting the starting and although it’s not detectable in the test tank I think she will be down on power.

So I’ll be doing a complete strip on this one and blueprinting every thing to make her reliable.

Any thoughts on these FP’s

Dave.

Journeyman wrote: Something has happened to the crankcase were the tiller is attached, the crankcase is leaking at the joint adjacent to it

Common problem on Forty Plus if they fall over or get stressed on tiller. Strip and flatten the crankcase halves. If you don't want to strip I find that you can swage the crankcase joint with a flat screwdriver, gentle taps with a small hammer you can seal the leak.

Some people say use very fine wet and dry on a flat surface to remove crankcase distortion. Personally I go for 180-240 grit, you want to flatten the halves not polish them. If you have stone worktops in your kitchen they are very flat, best done when she is out.

H-A

Thanks HA it’s good to know it’s a common problem.
There was a bucket of old spares with it, including a broken off tiller end (though not the tiller) so that is probably what happened.
I have a good cast table on a saw that I use as a surface plate so no need to annoy the Chief Cook! She gets annoyed enough when I use the Rayburn to forge, says the anvil gets under her feet and she hates the smell of burning oil from the hardening and tempering!

Will be a while before I get to this one but will let you know how I get on.

Dave.

All of Seagull's production motors had to pass a test tank test, to ensure there were no faults before number stamping & packing, any small crankcase leaks were fixed during the test with the use of a center punch in the area where the bubbles were forming!

Major leaks required a new crankcase.

Thanks for that Charles, good to know it’s an acceptable fix and confirmation that HA knows what he is talking about, though I never doubted him.
At the moment it is slathered with some sort of filler from the previous owner, he did say there was a problem and that’s why he had bought a spare crankcase but never got round to fitting it and used the outboard as it was.

Dave.

So finally got round to working on this 40 Plus, scraped and chipped off the hard grey filler
to expos the open crankcase joint. Started up again and was surprised to see oil appearing at the tiller pivot. When I put my finger near the joint the escaping air was enough to dimple the skin and was blowing the oil right across, but despite this big leak was still running!
As you can see the old crankcase was badly cracked and the face was out of line.

The replacement spare crank case was in good order and when I tried it together with some Engineers Blue it showed only a few high points that I scraped down.

Reassembled with the original old crank every thing was good, no play in the bearings crank turned sweetly and the joint was good.

With a couple of spanners to support the piston the barrel had enough of a lead machined on it so I could just press the rings in with a thumbnail.
The tub of Ramanol Marine Grease in the back ground is what I use on all the fastenings.
It stands up well on Anchor and Sheet Winches etc so should make stripping the motors down again easy.

.
On to the gear box next.
Dave.

Discovered that the thread in the End-cap of the Gearbox for the white plastic Plug is damaged is it 3/4" BSF?

OK so everything serviced and ready for reassembly, this is the least warn of my four Seagulls and doesn’t seem to have done that much work. The gear box is like new with no wear just that damaged thread to sort out.
Started third pull.
And first pull from then on, pumping plenty of water.
It also came with a “Seagull Refueller”!

Dave.