British Seagull motor rebuild?

[novocaine]

Superb.

Now add the mud and we are ready to plaster.

Sounds good, 2 stroke will always smoke and you're close enough with your mix.

Now to build a boat?

 

[Chris152]

Ha, yes - we've been wondering how we're going to try it out!
The plan is now just to remove the head and to look inside the gearbox, rather than strip the whole thing down - at least he'll get a good sense of how it works mechanically from that, the rest we can learn through diagrams/ videos. The danger with time constraints is that it never gets back together if we do a full dismantle as originally planned. But we'll definitely clean it up (more questions to follow on that...) and hopefully borrow a dinghy to get it on the water.
We've both learned so much from getting this far, and really appreciate the help everyone's given.

 

[novocaine]

There isn't a gearbox in there worth looking at, it's direct drive so just a crank (you'll have to split the casing to get a good look at that)
end of the day it cost you nowt, so if it never runs again it's no biggy, you've proven it works, he's learned some problem solving which is way more important than fine details here, now to get some us out of it for the young man and strip it, be careful on splitting the casing and you might save the gaskets. worst case you sell it for parts and keep some others running.

once upon a time you'd go the scrappy and pull something apart, can't do that anymore, shame really. Have you thought about RC car's as a way to learn? you can pick up a burner for cheap enough.

Isn't there an advert for the navy about this? something like if you can fix a skate board you can fix a bike, if you can fix a bike you can strip and rebuild a Turbomeca Makila 1a1 with your eyes closed, stood on your head with a silly hat on.

 

[Chris152]

Ha, yes I've seen that ad but I don't think he has. Thing is, kids don't seem to sit and watch telly any more. They'll sit and watch a film on netflix with me sometimes, but broadcast tv doesn't even figure on their radars - youtube, subscription films and all that. But yes, that's the hope - he's built his own skateboard, obsessed with fiddling with and upgrading his bike, and now has got a small engine running. Next it'll be cars (not motor bikes... :? ).

The problem with stripping the engine is that it's become sentimental now - that's the motor dad used to take us out fishing, pottering about on holiday and all that. Rather than potentially wreck it, I'm now thinking about getting a Mirror dingy to restore. Ones to restore seem to go pretty cheap this time of year and from what I can tell are pretty simple things? Plus that's wood, not metal. Point taken about the 'gearbox' - maybe just take off the head and have a look at the cylinder/ piston moving, then put it back together and get it looking nice.

 

[novocaine]

you get the plans for a mirror dirt cheap (any boat named after a news paper has to be cheap really), they are pretty simply to build yourself, you might find it a better prospect than buying a colander with a seat. have a search local for a mower repair shop, they usually have a couple of old dead motors laying about out back that if you explain your reasons they might let you have for nothing or not much, a bit more to them than the seagull and no biggy if you rip it apart to "learn".
Saves the seagull and as it's got sentimental value now no reason to strip it further than you have. he can still learn a few more bits from it, like how to make aluminium shiny and what happens when you hit your old man in the face with a pull cord, both of which are essential life lessons.