Lister D shaft drive - my new / first project

Hi,

Mark from NZ here (originally from Wales for the first 7 years of my life though !)

I have just purchased a Lister D.
Serial number = 93832 which I think makes it a 1930?
Spec 11D2 HP 2 RPM 1000.
It has a Ricardo head, low mount petrol tank, shaft drive ML CK1 magneto (took me a bit of googling to find that), early carb with no float chamber.

It starts very easily and seems to run ok (to my totally untrained ear).
All I have done with it so far is clean a whole lot of crap out of the hopper, and flushed it several times.

It needs a few bits replacing / fixing.
New external governor spring, new HT lead, new governor kook and knob, governor wick oiler, petrol tank straps are wrong (or the tank is), retainer for the Magneto Cap is also missing.

My plan with it is initially to give it a good clean up, replace the oil etc. and sort out the missing bits.
I will then work on it piece by piece until everything is done, then strip it down completely to clean it up internally / repaint it etc.
Half the fun is running it, so I don't want to take it completely to pieces yet.
It needs a trolley of some sort too.

I would love to know if there is any history available for it, I have seen some people be able to find out what their lister was used for etc. The fact that this was sold by LEVIN & Co LTD Wellngton (sole Agents for NZ) according to the plaque may make that difficult.

It is NOT a minter, definitely a "work in progress" which was what I wanted, I like to tinker with things.

Will rad the post about how to post pictures and see if I can add some in.

Nice. Keep us posted with progress.

Hi Mark,
i would say that you are about right for dating the engine 1929/30, David Edgington was the man to confirm the dating but he as sadly died his widow Doreen Edgington would give you a date and probably a shipping date too, the address is,
Lodge Wood Farm,
Hawkeridge,
Westbury,
Wiltshire.
BA13 4LA.
Website www.stationaryenginebooks.co.uk.
Regards,
Keith.

or you could use email to contact Doreen:

Ddlwf123@aol.com or enginbooks@aol.com

[quote="blue cat"]or you could use email to contact Doreen:

Thanks for the suggestions, I did contact Doreen, who responded very quickly and seems really nice.
Engine was made March 18th 1930, shipped to NZ on March 25th 1930.
I will be ordering the two Lister books from her shortly.

(had to delete the links from your reply, as I am a new member and it didn't like them!)

I ordered the books from Doreen, who sent them out pretty quickly, they arrived yesterday.
I've had a look through, and I think my Mag (see photo above) is probably off a different model Lister. It works fine though, so won't be changing that anytime soon, but if it is wrong, I will keep my eyes out for the right one.
Had a bit more of a look in the hopper, and there is heap of crud still in it, plus the oil is very black, fuel line leaks a bit etc....
Decided I will strip the whole thing down in one go and tidy it up. Can't see any likely issues with strip down, other than the accessory wheel (probably not called that) in front of the flywheel has what looks like cement in the end of it, so I will probably need to get that out so I can undo the screw (hopefully) to take that off. Then I would have to deal with the key thing in the flywheel itself. Have already been applying penetrating oil to that.

Have to hold off until I can sort out some good containers to put everything in, plus my son is super enthusiastic to help, so I will wait until I can do it with him. I've already learnt quite a bit, which I have been teaching him as we go.

Not much of an update, but a little bit of progress.
I haven't seen much in the way of parts (or other Lister D's for sale in NZ, so may have to get the bits I need off ebay / the stationary engine place).
Since it runs well, I am hoping not to have to replace to much more than the visible stuff. Will build a list as I go.

It will certainly take me a long time, but that's fine.
I need to be careful, as I have already started looking at other stationary engines to buy - need to finish this one first !

ListerD wrote:I ordered the books from Doreen, who sent them out pretty quickly, they arrived yesterday.
I've had a look through, and I think my Mag (see photo above) is probably off a different model Lister.  It works fine though, so won't be changing that anytime soon, but if it is wrong, I will keep my eyes out for the right one.
Had a bit more of a look in the hopper, and there is heap of crud still in it, plus the oil is very black, fuel line leaks a bit etc....
Decided I will strip the whole thing down in one go and tidy it up.  Can't see any likely issues with strip down, other than the accessory wheel (probably not called that) in front of the flywheel has what looks like cement in the end of it, so I will probably need to get that out so I can undo the screw (hopefully) to take that off.  Then I would have to deal with the key thing in the flywheel itself.  Have already been applying penetrating oil to that.

Have to hold off until I can sort out some good containers to put everything in, plus my son is super enthusiastic to help, so I will wait until I can do it with him.  I've already learnt quite a bit, which I have been teaching him as we go.

Not much of an update, but a little bit of progress.
I haven't seen much in the way of parts (or other Lister D's for sale in NZ, so may have to get the bits I need off ebay / the stationary engine place).
Since it runs well, I am hoping not to have to replace to much more than the visible stuff.  Will build a list as I go.

It will certainly take me a long time, but that's fine.
I need to be careful, as I have already started looking at other stationary engines to buy - need to finish this one first !

The thing on the crankshaft alongside the flywheel is a pulley for driving things ie .pumps saws, elevators etc, it sounds as though it is running well keep flushing the hopper flush out the oil and put in clean oil,sort out the fuel line.
If it was mine i would brush off the crud and wipe it down with a oily rag and just run it there is nowt wrong with a engine in its working clothes.
Best Regards,
Chiefy.

The thing on the crankshaft alongside the flywheel is a pulley for driving things ie .pumps saws, elevators etc, it sounds as though it is running well keep flushing the hopper flush out the oil and put in clean oil,sort out the fuel line.
If it was mine i would brush off the crud and wipe it down with a oily rag and just run it there is nowt wrong with a engine in its working clothes.
Best Regards,
Chiefy.[/quote]

Thanks, that was initially the plan, but when I fully drained the hopper there is a lot of material in the bottom that doesn't flush out, some of it may be rusty pieces, but there are also stones and assorted other crud.
My son is also very keen to learn how it works, which was one of the main reasons for getting it, and pulling it down to some extent means I can show him how the valves are operated etc.
I may not go as far as removing the crank / piston etc, as I can demonstrate how that works in place. It doesn't seem to clunk around or smoke, so I think the bearings / bore etc are probably ok.
Of course he may get bored after the first hour.... but I won't.

I'm really looking forwards to getting on with it. Maybe by the time I have finished one of those horizontal piston stationary engines will have come up for sale.
Or I could buy another D :-) They are very compact little things, but not light.

Might be worth knocking up a trolley/barrow to make it a bit more stable to work on?



Stuart.

Robotstar5 wrote:Might be worth knocking up a trolley/barrow to make it a bit more stable to work on?



Stuart.

Very much a good idea.
Short term I will put it on anything mobile. Longer term would be nice to have something like your image.
Currently when I was running it, I would 'walk' it outside the garage door a bit.

I do have an engine crane, which makes loading it into the car much easier at least.

Not sure which, but my son is still enthusiastically helping (I generally crack the nuts a bit loose the night before !).
- Valve gear off (and grouped / labelled), no issues there, shaft came out relatively easily.
- Head bolts in Hopper came off ok.
- Head bolts in rocker area were easy.
- Head cracked free quite easily and came off.

So.
- The bore looks ok to my non expert eye, no obvious scratches / scores. A bit of a lip at the top, I assume where the rings stop.
I am not planning on removing the piston / rod at this point, as everything seems to be working fine.

- Gasket is copper, and doesn't look like it would be 90 years old, so it's obviously been apart at some point (probably why it was easy to work on).

- Piston and chamber are a bit sooty / dirty, but not too bad, and will clean up pretty easily

So nothing too concerning yet, thread on head bolts also seems fine, so will just clean up and retain them as is.