Saving Old Seagulls

If you suspend the motor by the flywheel by a fixed support, the full shock of the hammer blow is taken by the flywheel if the crankshaft doesn't get released from the taper, that's probably what happened to the flywheel in the picture I posted.

Whereas when the flywheel is held by a friend the sharp impact of the hammer is transmitted via grip of the taper into the flywheel & then into the friends arms which give with the blow reducing the shock to the flywheel.
I was taught how to remove flywheels by an ex Seagull employee who had been the manager of almost every workshop, including the rebuild shop, in the 30 plus years he worked for them, he used a small (1 to 1.5 lb) ball pain hammer & hit them several times, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, rather like an impact driver a lot of small blows release tight nuts, try undoing the wheel nuts on your car with the wheel brace supplied.

When was the last time you were in a professional garage Chas?
These days we tend to use battery powered impact guns, or for some of us (me) an air gun. I can't justify spending £600 odd pounds on a snapon gun.
Hardly ever do we use a "breaker bar" unless we absolutely have to. (i've still got the scars on my shins from using those bloody things)
I went out and bought an extendable wheel brace for my van which makes very light work of removing wheel nuts. You never know when you might need it...


Back to taper joints, all depends on which method you use to seperate said joint. Seagulls or otherwise (i am a mechanic dont forget) and see this problem a lot.
These seagull flywheel tapers seem to suffer from corrosion which over a long time will seize things in place. Nothing new there.
Big hammers can work, but yes i agree in that a second pair of hands helps enormously.


Still looking for the original post on this framework support thingy.....
Some of you might like it, but then again not.
I thought it was quite nifty at the time


Jon

I have never had a problem Pulling of a Villiers flywheels, But wipac are a pain, they either do or they don't, no easy way around it, as its only me in the shed.
The man at Seagull that did the job at the time, did what worked for him, but remember how long ago that was, a lot of the motors have never had the flywheel pulled off, since new.
I only normally play with Villiers flywheels, more room to get your hand in and hold the motor by the flywheel and hit with the other, so I don't need to hang the motor from the ceiling, not that I would anyway.