> You're shooting down a strawman, Geoff. I never said the old machinery was
> better. On the other hand, I don't need any credit for keeping the old
> Seagull running all these years because I rarely did anything to it except
> hose it off and give it an occasional spray of WD-40 and, once in a while,
> a new sparkplug.
\
My humble apologies, Harry. I took one sentence of your E-mail and got a
little carried away. I do respect the fact that you have kept things simple
and practical. I think that the fact that you have gotten so much use out of
your old motor and still stay in tune with what is new is admirable. You are
right. The only Seagull I am familiar with is a very small motor that was made
without even a shroud or cover over the moving parts. It is, for all intents
and purposes, just a cylinder, a piston and a lower drive that is just one rod
and a prop. The only one's I've seen, just a couple of them, have been smokey
and loud. I have heard so many stories about motors that would refuse to
start when you needed them.
I have some friends who have a few years on me, or rather a few decades, and
they are constantly putting down the two stroke engine as being virtually a
toy that is undependable and unpredictable. They have, for the most part, had
Seagulls and old Sears outboards.
I, on the other hand, have only had personal, hands on experience with the
Tohatsu and the Honda. The Tohatsu I had total confidence in. I knew when the
going got tough, when the wind and chop got scary, when I was drifting towards
rocks, or entering a crowded bay or marina, the Tohatsu would start with one
or two pulls. Always.
My newer Honda seems to be equally dependable, but with valves and more moving
parts, I would be a little more hesitant to open up the engine. Actually,
I've never met a Honda owner who has had to. The worst problem seems to be
either a flooded engine (which I saw once, at the Tahoe Potter sail) or a
fouled plug. I have been told that the new Hondas are almost impossible to
flood. Although it never happened to me, I understand that this does happen
with Hondas prior to the new ones.
Again, I apologize. I used your letter as a soapbox to try to let anyone who
cared that the breaking of shear pins is not the fault of the motor, but of
something not being quite kosher with the motor. Something that should be
fixed.
While I'm back on my soapbox, I'd like to mention to all: Carry extra shear
pins. A broken shear pin should not put you in the type of jeopardy that has
been mentioned here. You need to have several extra shear pins as well as
tools. The tools that come with the motor are OK, but if you keep a universal
tool such as a Leatherman aboard, your safety and the well being of your boat
will not be in danger for so slight a problem as a broken shear pin. You also
need a spare cotter pin for the prop and a spare prop isn't really overdoing
it either. I have found that an old Band-Aid box, the metal kind, makes an
excellent little itty-bitty spare parts box. In it I keep an extra plug,
cotter pins, shear pins and an extra of those little mast slot stoppers that
keeps your slugs from flying out that are so easy to lose.
Most motors have some way of storing extra shear pins on the shroud or
somewhere on the motor. That's good. A couple of extra, just in case you lose
one or two, should be part of your emergency supply kit.
Again, Harry, I apologize.
Geoff
P-15 Lollipop
N. Lake Tahoe, NV