I had similar problems with my SG. The little filter in the tank disentegrated so it served no purpose. I cleaned the the carb and replaced the fuel line. I put in a small barrel fuel filter and within seconds it was full of black chips. I checked the tank and it was nasty. If you have a steel tank you are bound to have rust. Mine was all dark rusty brown. Yours is probably the same. Don't panic. You can bring it back to life very easily. Pour a half a bottle of Naval Jelly in the tank. Add a handfull of 1/2 square nuts and bolts and shake shake shake. Leave it right side up for a few hours to let the gel do its work. Then shake it up some more and turn it over for a while. Repeat as necessary. Then just empty it out and rinse with clean gas a few times. Getting the last few nuts is fun.. The inside will look like a mirror. Have fun.. Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: Conbert Benneck To: john@eco-living.net ; For and about Montgomery Sailboats Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 2:49 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Talk about tiny outboards....seagull advice? On 27-Sep-12 6:13 PM, John Schinnerer wrote: Hi John, Seagull engines run on about a 20:1 gas to oil ratio. If the engine hasn't been run for awhile, there is a very good possibility that the evaporating gasoline left a caking of oil gunk in the main carburetor jet, which would make it smaller i n diameter. Then as you open the throttle, the required fuel for running the engine under load is not available; the clogged jet has become a restriction. I suggest cleaning the carburetor; and while you're at it, also clean the fuel tank as well. You'd be amazed at what you might find in a dirty fuel tank: water; dirt; oil-gel; or other crud that has no business being in a fuel tank. As I recall, the Seagull carburetor is very simple. Squirting some carburetor cleaner into the carburetor might partially do the trick, but my druthers would be to totally disassemble the carburetor; clean all the passages; orifices; jets; and the float chamber with fuel valve; so you know that everything is clean and in order; and then reassemble it again. Now you "Know" that it is clean. . If there was year-old fuel/oil mixture in the fuel tank; dump it and start again with clean fresh fuel, which you should do when you are cleaning the fuel tank (and today's fuel with 10% ethanol may not be kind to an old Seagull engine). The fuel hose may not "like" the 10% ethanol added of today's fuel, and will get soft and squishy with time. The beauty of a Seagull is that you can do a complete overhaul of the engine in the cockpit of your sailboat. Just remember you will need some _*Whitworth wrenches*_ to work on it. (available from Snap on, or other large mechanic's tool company - maybe even from SEARS). SAE wrenches don't fit Whitworth bolts, and metric wrenches don't work either. Connie
Aloha,
Seeing there may be some seagull experts here - a friend has a 1980's seagull on a recently purchased used boat. On his first outing, it ran readily, but only at an idle, wouldn't rev up beyond that.
I realize that's not much info, and, sometimes someone knows just what that's about for some particular machine - if anyone here does, please advise. He's fairly mechanical so I am assuming he would know if it was just a broken throttle cable or something simple like that.
If more info is needed I can ask him for details on the motor. Hope to be taking a sail with him in near future and would like to have a working auxiliary. His previous outing involved a rather long channel passage where the engine at idle held speed over ground at zero vs. outgoing tide...not quite useful for getting home... :-)
thanks, John S.