Hi From QLD Australia, SOS 1955/56 little 40

[Murray210]

Hi there,
I have decided to wind the clock back and find a small Seagull similar to the one I used to get around the Great Barrier Reef in a 8 foot dingy in the early 1980's. I have recently purchased Engine Serial Number: LS31003, which I have entered into the SOS Engine Identifier, it is identified as a 55/56 little 40 series. The propeller has 40 plus cast on it. I purchased the motor from NSW approx. 2000k from me and quite a way from the ocean in the hope that it has not seen much n the way of salt water. It came from a farm and has not seen service in 30 plus years.
I have only had it 24 hours, degreased the outside to make it a little easier to work on, cleaned the fuel tank, carby and spark plug out. It is many years since I have smelt rotten old leaded petrol, but this old tank had some in it! Made up a fresh 10:1fuel mix, and it has fired up on the second pull. I have run it for 30 seconds in a bucket of water last night, but according to the FAQ on the SOS site, I am 2 or 3 inches short on my water level. The little engine is certainly very "Salt Corrosion" free on the out side, so I am hoping that when the sun comes up this morning, a taller bucket of water will see a stream out of the tell tale.
This really is a great forum and the SOS website is brilliant (Thanks John) between looking at the FAQs page and trawling through posts for a few hours on the forum I have found all of the information I required to clean this little engine out and get it running again in about an hour and a half.
When the sun is up I will check the Villiers carby needle to see if it is a no3 or 4 and sort out the correct fuel or order a new needle for 25:1, I also have a small list of parts I would like to carry as spares, so when I know if I am up for an impellor or not I will send a request for quote through to John. I see a few people are selling parts on the internet, but I reckon If John is good enough to put all of this information up to support engine owners, I should support him also.
My engine is going to see some good active use as I live right next to a River ( Cameron Street, Railway Estate, Queensland, Australia on Google Earth) that leads out to sea.
I have also purchased a little second-hand Timber 10'6 Rowing Skiff, based on a shortened Thames design, it is a one off design and built by a retired Navy shipwright quite some years ago, it won't arrive for 3 weeks because it is 2500 ks away, I just cannot find this sort of boat second-hand in Timber any closer to home. I actually need to find a good rowing boat for recovering from Stomach Cancer (I refuse to sit inside a building on a rowing machine)
I will have to attach a small mount on the transom to accommodate the motor, the motor will primarily be back up for mechanical failure of myself with or against the tide and to make the whole rowing thing a bit more interesting and fun.
Attached are a couple of pics of the little 40 from the previous owner as I purchased it and a couple of the skiff.
I will post some more pics when the skiff arrives. Again great site and forum, your many contributions have made this easy for me, thank you.

[chris]

Its all madness, quit while you can.
besides that, when you run the motor in a small container try taking off the propeller and it should pump water, impellors rarely need replacing, with that model I would stick to 10/1 fuel mix, the modern 2 stroke oils reduce a lot of the smoke, you can buy plugs and gearbox oil from your local repco agent.
Like your boat I am jealous

[Murray210]

Ha Ha Chris,
it is all madness alright, I got this disease years ago!
I should have written on my original post, I did take the prop off, but the bucket was only 2 gallons and the water was just below the exhaust, then it got dark, so I called it a night.
Will have a crack in a small wheelie bin today.

[Oyster 49]

Welcome to the forum! Do be aware of certain vague and innaccurate descriptions on ebay, ask here before buying

There are very little spares available for LS engines, so those engines are quite worth having as an occasional user, I would suggest getting a later SJP or FP as your regular user. Seagulls like to flock in numbers...

[Murray210]

Thanks Oyster 49, E bay is the same here in Oz or the Bay of E's as some like to say, a place to believe little about what is written.
Unfortunately Seagulls are very rare in this neck of the woods to find a second one.
Please wash my mouth out with soap, but I do have a little Johnson 3 1/2 Lightwin as a regular user, it is of similar vintage to the Seagull 40, but most of the engine parts up to the last 2 stroke 3 1/2's still fit it.

[chris]

the old litetwins are really good motors with a lot of character

[Murray210]

She lives !!!
Prop off, idle at 1000 rpm, good steady stream pretty warm water (approx. 60 Deg C). Below 1000 water slows to a trickle and gets pretty hot (approx. 75-80 Deg C) , below 900 rpm the water stops, below 800 rpm the motor stops,

Yeah baby!

[chris]

looks ok but best test is on a boat

[Murray210]

I still almost 3 weeks from a boat Chris, but I'll put it back in the shed until then.
re
Murray

[Murray210]

OK,
the little Skiff arrived, but the transom did not lend itself to attaching a Seagull. The transom was too high and too wide!

The skiff required a transom outboard bracket of 250mm deep to allow enough room to swing the motor and handle starboard to port and to tilt the motor up and apart from being functional, try and make it sympathetic to the boat and removable at a later date. Being so long presented some issues for strength, I wanted to run 4 each 6 mm Stainless bolts through the assembly for terminal strength, epoxied into the bracket. As I don't own a 6mm x 250 mm long drill bit the only way I could do this was to make 12 individual 18mm x 18mm sections per side, drill them with a small pre-made template, then laminate each set of 12 on a clamping board.

The side panels then required cutting off with a 10 in 1 fall to match the transom angle and not droop downward.

Here it is attached, I have painted on a line to each side panel to try and match the upswept planks at the stern

And a few different profiles

[Murray210]

A couple more profiles-
I will give this a few days for all of the Epoxy to go off, mount up a nice little Brass Garboard Drain near the bow, then Mount the motor and see how she runs in the River.
Meanwhile we have this monster Cyclone Ita bearing down on us bringing winds of 150 kph gusting to 200 plus, very inconvenient, as I Live on a tidal river, the skiff is on the Patio ready to row should we get a storm surge. That is why I am up at 4 am Sat morning casting a weather eye over things.

[Hugz]

Looking good but I have a concern that the tiller will foul the transom. Good to see pic of motor mounted. Nice boat and red car! (lotus?) Hopefully the downgrade of the cyclone will make life easier for you. A little 40 might be struggling a tad against 150kph winds.

[Murray210]

Hi Hugz,
covered your concern in the post
"The skiff required a transom outboard bracket of 250mm deep to allow enough room to swing the motor and handle starboard to port and to tilt the motor up and apart from being functional"
When the rain stops I'll get the outboard on and take a pic. On the dry fit up yesterday, It's a nice fit I have about 25 mm clearance off the handle, I didn't want to make that Transom Bracket any longer, bit too much leverage.
Yeah its a 69 Lotus Europa, sold new in Parramatta Rd by the Geoghegan Brothers back when they imported them from lotus to fund their car racing, ah the good old days!

Yes might need a 29" prop and an extra 300 hp for those big winds, at least the Cyclone has dropped in severity as the day is wearing on.

[Hugz]

Indeed you did Trust me to look at pictures and not read text. Have you lost power? (electricity not hp)

Incidentally my supplier of copper roves and rivets advised me not to use stainless steel to bolt on transom bracket as the timber will corrode them. He is an old boat builder yet when I google it I can find no info to back it up. Defies logic too. Anyone know what he is on about?

[Murray210]

Electrolysis
I had heard Similar thinks Hugz, I can only think they are talking electrolysis which can/ will occur between dissimilar metals when added to salt, current from electrical source, eg motor ignition etc. I have actually drilled 10mm holes for the 6mm all-thread. Made it all up on the bench setting the bolt lengths up then sealing one end of the bracket bolt exit point with fast set epoxy. Once that was dried I inverted the bracket, mixed up 2 pack glue and injected it down the sides of the holes with a syringe to encase it all in epoxy. Quite a long and painful process. Then the bracket has the bolts permanently fixed to it, I coated the last exposed 30mm threads with food grade Stainless Steel Anti-seize, this contains no other metals and prevents electrolysis, these 30mm protrusions then go thru the transom and the internal s/s plates slipped on, then the nuts. So in essence you can undo 4 bolts, remove inspect etc. or remove and refill the transom holes.

I hope you don't regret asking, but I believe I have it covered, best I can

We have not lost power yet, it is not uncommon hear in cyclone season, we have a 4 kva gen set wired into the mains board in the appropriate approved manner, power goes out, start the gen set, flick the switch in the mains board, and you have TV, cold Beer, elec workshop tools, forget workshop tools, did I mention cold beer!
Yes we are in the suburds, but it does not mean you have to rough it when the power goes out