Change of plan

On closer inspection - after stripping the crankcase apart to try to see why the crank was running stiff - I see the tiller arm has been rewelded !

Its actually quite a good weld job - but it has distorted the lower crankcase.When you tighten three bolts on one side it runs sweet - close it up and it binds. It could be lapped off on the joint - to match the gap opposite where its running smooth - but its a lot of work to be left with a welded crank arm !

So decide to strip off the villiers base plate so I can mount the villiers magneto on the the other spare crankcase. After two hours I managed to remove the coil and points so I could get a good whack of heat on the fixing screw.

Trouble is - in using the spare crank I carry over the other engine no - which is a 1975 model WSPC - and has the Wipac baseplate still on it.

So I thinks to myself - hang on here - I'm using the crank, block, piston assembly of this 75 - if I scrap the idea of the villiers magneto and fit it up with a Wipac ( better unit to my mind anyways ) - then I'm restoring the 75 SC Plus, clutch. It will just be a long not a short - so gave John a ring about Wipac stuff and he has complete Wipac Flywheel/magneto assemblies used, for quite a reasonably price.May be able to get one at Uphill anyway this weekend.

Update - July 08

Well - I asked about a Wipac magneto at Uphill - and ended up buying his entire stock of spares ! Seems he was on the point of selling the whole lot to someone, so I matched his offer. Still don't have a Wipac magneto though ! - bu do have about six crates of spares, two engines and half of a couple of Forty series.

So - I have now attached a replacement crankcase base with virtually the same no - a WSPCL F1, which makes it 1971 - so strictly speaking it should have a Wipac rather than the Villiers.

I have now removed the villiers baseplate for replacement with another in better order. I have about six spare pistons, new rings etc etc ! Not sure what I have got really. I must do a list sometime - and will post it here if anyone wants any bits.

All finished and mounted on Lena - it went onto the rail, with its main fixing position onto the bronze bracket directly mounted to the transom. I made up a custom bracket for the rail, so the same fixing pin is used for both.

Didn't get a pic before - but will get one on the boat soon. Haven't tried it yet in earnest, apart from running in a tank test, where it started first time after the rebuild.

Not many Seagulls get this treatment !

I said somewhere Seagulls and Cello don't mix - this was a one off, or at least I hope so.

Time that garden shed was sorted...!

So tempting though - a bench vice that opens to nearly ten inches - it has to stop... ( new shed built now - and with an even bigger old vice - so never, ever again, does a seagull crankcase come creeping into my violin workshop)

Still - they are both sort of old and fascinating .