A Seagull Moment

Let the Archangels ascend and the Seraphim play sweet tunes on their golden horns - basically, 'Yippee' - its out !

Be very careful with these Cobalt screw extractors. You need to drill out as large a hole as you can, apply plenty of heat and be 'very gentle' on the extractor.

My first attempt with a smaller pilot hole and a smaller extractor and 'too much wellie' snapped the cobalt bit off ! So I'm stuck there with a bit of cobalt steel in my hole - not good news. After resharpening the same cobalt 2.5mm bit about 8 times, I managed to burn my way past it.

By this time I had given up on it - and was simply going to drill it right out and fit a 6mm bolt right through the lower casing. Realising the larger extractor would still go in, I tried again and bingo - very satisfying.

If you are after taps for BSF - they are available quite cheaply, as single items. Chronos stock them, about £5 for HSS, £2.50 for carbon - in taper, 2nd and plug cuts. I've ordered a few in 1/4 and 5/16 - good for cleaning out old threads.

All apart now

This was the last stumbling block of the stripdown. The drivetube is off the pinion end - that was siezed firm. So. everything now is apart, though I may try to extract the tiller arm stud, as I have a couple of new ones.

The gearcase seems in excellent order - with a nice solid pinion bearing and nice condition on the teeth.