Saving Old Seagulls

John has asked me to give one of my scathing critics of some Seagull suitable tools that he’s located recently & that he’s planning to sell as a 3 piece tool kit.

All 3 Items appear to have been made for the Ministry of Defence as many are stamped in their fashion.

The King Dick chrome plated 2150 obstruction spanner ¼ bsf x 5/16 bsf is the most important member of this little trio, as it’s the only spanner that will fit the crankcase to drive shaft tube 5/16 nuts without damaging them & was the spanner that British Seagull issued to all their engine building staff, & will fit on these nuts on all models from the Marston OA up to a 1996 Kingfisher.

There is also a Britool 3/8 drive 5/16 bsf socket, that is thin walled enough to fit to fit all the head bolts even the one that is really close to the cooling fin on some heads, I prefer sockets in 3/8 drive for Seagulls as with a ½ drive it’s much easier to shear nuts & bolts you have less feel.

Last but not least there is a Britool ring spanner 3/16 bsf x ¼ bsf that is perfect for almost every other nut on a British Seagull classic motor including the retaining clamp nut on a Villiers carb.


All right there isn’t anything that will fit the flywheel & tiller arm nuts & the spark plug, if you feel that’s a problem, buy one of John’s Seagull multi spanners or an adjustable, other than that just about everything is covered.

All of the above are of the quality you would expect of British made tools manufactured before the 1970s.


In my opinion the King Dick obstruction spanner is an essential item in any Seagull tool kit, no doubt there will be posts that follow this one that will comment on my view.

The obstruction spanner is, as you say, indispens indespen indispimn indspi something you just have to have...

I am no critic, but am known for my indispensable critiques! (Kill two birds with one stone!)

Keith your going to be very busy pointing out my speling errors!

Charles, you know its not me, the wife's the grammar queen, I just do as I'm told.

Forget the grammer, how much is John wanting me to part with for one of these invalububle kits ?
good advice on the box !
sod the expence count me in

No idea he's away sailing, he might be home soon, now the winds dropping.

people use to give me a hard time at boat regattas about the size of my seagull tool kit

I was at a classic boat regatta and one of the putt putts or in boards were having a problem with the drive shaft,the only spanner that would fit to tighten it up was a 5/16 bsf obstruction spanner and what did I happen to have in my collection of seagull tools but that extremely useful spanner, I have repaired a few other seagulls at regattas with simple fixes, I don't use the multipurpose spanner, I have 3 different ones. The adjustable or shifter spanner comes in very handy, I use that for the plug.
people rarely give me a hard time any more about the tools, it is amazing how many people don't carry any.

I think we can say this toolkit will be a good seller. The sooner the better.

Excellent find

Never seen that make of obstruction over here, does it have enough clearance from the exhaust to fit every angle?

You might have solved your problem, but 1 spanner will not quite fill the demand of a lot of Seagull owners, I don't know how many of the King Dick obstructions John has managed to get his hands on, but remanufacture seems to be way out of line, minimum order 1000 at an exorbitant price, modifing a right shaped metric or AF spanner, just too expensive, none of us would want to spend more than £20 on a spanner unless we were forced by circumstances/ lack of availability.

So I'm just glad he's managed to locate some!

I belive he's also managed to find some correct SD tiller arm wing nuts!

I have got my toolkit off John. Excellent in a tool roll @ £12 plus £3.50 postage.

Charles uk wrote:I belive he's also managed to find some correct SD tiller arm wing nuts!

Brass ones??