Lister A Restoration - Newbie Questions

As I am completely new to the "stationary engine" world, please bear with me as I am going to be asking lots of fundamental, simple and possibly stupid questions as I take on my engine restoration project. I therefore thought it would be a good idea to post a new topic on the subject.
I have a few weeks before I collect the engine and until I do, I won't know the full extent of what I am about to take on!
My first fundamental questions (these really are basic!) are can someone please advise as to the fuel that the engine requires (i.e. do I need to use any additives etc) and what do I need in terms of lubrication.
Thanks

All being well you will have no great hurdles to over come on your new engine, its nice to get the first one out the way and find your feet knowing what goes where and how it works with out too much head scratching, the whole purpose of the forum is to ask questions, we were all there at one time.
As for fuel, be aware of the new fuel and its ability to absorb moisture, if you wanted you can add a fuel stabiliser or drain the fuel tanks if stored for a long period, I have not bothered draining any tanks but the next fuel being added will have some stabil I think its called added. I just use any petrol oil, right or wrong, my engines only run short periods, cant this it will be doing them any hard.

Good luck.

No such thing as a stupid question - ask away. Good luck!

So, you may have seen my other post where I explained that I just bought two Lister Ds. One is 1930s and the other 1950s (I believe). I noticed today that the inlet and exhaust appear to be in the opposite positions on the two engines - is this normal or am I missing something?

Having the two carbs in two positions could be that one is normal rotation , that is the green one and the other will be reverse rotation. Do you have the starting handles, are they the same, are the drive fingers facing the same way or are they opposites. try them in the green engine, it should swing clockwise looking at the handle the other should swing the other way if its different, if they both swing the same way the carb on the white one has been incorrectly fitted.
As to fuel, these engines were designed to run on unleaded before leaded fuel was created, no need to use any additives, there are no seals rubber or plastic on these engines, I winter mine with fuel in with no problems, as to oil, 20/50 is ok, they were designed to use straight 30 which can be bought from Halfords or Morris oils .
Looking at the white one there is a good chance the engine is off a cement mixer as they tended to point the exhaust straight down for ease of exit.

Maryalice
p.s. pleased you hired a van.

I thought the same as maryalice regarding the possibility of either the white being: opposite rotation, or having the carb and exhaust wrongly fitted, (actually I have never knowingly seen an opposite rotation type).
I now think that it is opposite rotation, because the governor shaft and throttle rods are made for the carburettor to be fitted in the positions shown.

should have spotted that but it was late

Maryalice

Thanks both for your replies and also the info on oil/fuel - most useful. Does make sense now that you have pointed out that the associated equipment is also on the "wrong" side. Unfortunately I only have a handle for the "white" machine (it is actually seized) and I noticed today that the other machine requires a smaller diameter handle (1" 1/8 as opposed to 1" 1/4 (I think it was)). I wonder why the white machine was made for "opposite rotation" (or was this not uncommon) and why did they change the shaft to a smaller diameter in later models?

the rotation direction is at the request of the customer and the handle size change is a lister upgrade, why because they could

Maryalice

I am a little confused as to the position of the fuel lines on the Lister A that I recently bought. The return makes sense being on the top but I don't understand why the feed is located halfway up the side of the tank and not at the bottom. Obviously I am missing something here so can someone please enlighten me?

I've often wondered that, the only reason I can suggest is that the pump wont lift crap. I have made my own tanks and when I fit the feed fitting to the pump I put it in the correct place but solder a pipe internally to go down to within 1/2" of the bottom.

Maryalice

I thought it might be to do with that (crap at the bottom of the tank) but to have the pipe literally half way down the side seems a bit ridiculous - can't believe that fuel in the old days used to be so dirty!. I also thought about a tube internally to the tank reaching down - don't think I have one (will have a closer look) but it is a good idea.
I need a replacement tank for the Lister D and was thinking about either buying a second hand one or perhaps getting one made - if I got one made, how much do you think it would cost - ball park?

I cant honestly say, I've had formers made to make the end pieces and can roll and form the body but as yet I've never made a D tank, mine have all been the round A and B tanks, I use copper instead of steel.
Keep your eyes on Ebay and bring and buy sales, £30 wouldn't be to bad.

Maryalice

There are a few on fleabay or, if you want a new one, you could try    https://www.franks-tanks.co.uk/

Thanks Maryalice and Woodsman - I've seen a few on ebay but the ones I saw recently were a little dented. I'm not in a rush so will keep my eyes open.

I had a little play with the Lister A yesterday but there is no spark so I'm wondering if someone could please help me with a little fault finding on the mag.
There is a very small (around 20VAC) voltage being produced measured very crudely with a multi-meter.
On what I believe to be the primary coil, there is a resistance of around 0.4 ohms. I'm not sure exactly where the secondary coil is but think that one end presents itself where my screwdriver points in the photo below. There is a connection point here which makes contact with the HT lead.

On the mag cover, the contact strip is shown in the photo below where I have indicated an attached strip of metal that I think may make contact with the mag body but I am confused by this as I would have though that doing so would provide a short for the HV to ground

The photo below shows what I assume to be the capacitor - this is open circuit

Finally, a photo showing the points. These open and close but I have no idea how/if I need to adjust them.

Any help/ideas would be most gratefully received.

[quote="craig kelly"]I had a little play with the Lister A yesterday but there is no spark so I'm wondering if someone could please help me with a little fault finding on the mag.
There is a very small (around 20VAC) voltage being produced measured very crudely with a multi-meter.
On what I believe to be the primary coil, there is a resistance of around 0.4 ohms. I'm not sure exactly where the secondary coil is but think that one end presents itself where my screwdriver points in the photo below. There is a connection point here which makes contact with the HT lead.
[quote]

Measure the resistance from this solder blob on the outside of the coil to the coil clamp. Set your multimeter on 20K ohms scale. You should see a resistance of 4-5K ohms (4000-5000 ohms). Report back the reading.

Thanks Blue Cat. Since I wrote the post, I managed to find some information on the RS1. I did measure the secondary coil and received a reading of around 5Kohms so on the face of it (0.4ohms for the primary), the coil looks as though it might be ok. I have ordered a new capacitor which I am hopeful will be here for the weekend so will give it another try. Incidentally, the secondary coil on another RS1 reads in the range of 35Mohms so that one is definitely faulty.

I have RS1 workshop manual if you would like a copy.

Thanks Woodsman - a manual would be most useful.

Email sent.

Little bit of progress - got the Lister A on a trolley today so will make it a lot easier when I start the real work!