Lister d mag change

Hi guys

I have tested my lucas sr1 mag on my lister d engine and the coil has gone duff because there was no reading on the coil

I was just wandering if i could swap the sr1 that is on there for another mag such as a wico mag or a lucas rs1

because i know the sr1 was rubbish

any ideas?

Cheers

Luke

Yes.

If you can make it fit, drive it the right way and time it then it'll work. You could even go mad and graft on a flywheel mag but that might be taking things a bit far... All you need is a spark at the right time and the engine doesn't care what makes it.

Paul

Paul's quite right, I would recommend the WICO A Series mags (even though mine doesn't work) they're usually very hardy.

But you might want to hang on & see how my experiments go with the BSA Bantam coil in my WICO mag, if it works my brother has a Lucas SR1 in the shed, I could do the same to that & do an exchange with yours, or you could get a coil & try it yourself.

If you have £75 to spare you could always get a re-wound coil for yours, these modern re-winds are encapsulated with modern materials, & are designed to last for practically ever.

I hope my advice was helpful on your other thread & didn't confuse the issue too much, you're doing a grand job by the sounds of it. Magnetos are a PITA & often the most expensive part of the engine, but once they are working right they are wonderful things.

Stick with it & keep us posted on what you decide to do

P.S. Just to reiterate on something Paul said:

If buying a second hand mag, make sure it has the correct direction of rotation. I think I'm right in saying when a magneto is stated as being either clockwise or anticlockwise it is as seen from the driving end, not the points end.

I have no idea what that equates to on a Lister D, my brother & I had one when we were about 7 or 8 years old (we're twins see) but it wasn't kept long, we never took it apart & my dad did all the starting in those days. I'm 33 now, & have had nothing to do with Lister D's since that one, so my memory is a little fuzzy on the mechanics of them.

But just so you know, a magneto only works in it's designed direction. You can have them converted, but it's as expensive as a re-wind in most cases. (You probably knew all this anyway )

The mag is the most expensive part to sort out on a Lister D as most of the other bits are common so don't demand a high price. There's a couple of mags that were used on the Lister D depending on it's age so finding the correct mag shouldn't be that difficult but it's the cost of buying a good one that's the problem as it could cost the same as buying another engine and the mag is one of the main reason a lot of D's end up getting scrapped.
Luke all I can say is dig deep and buy another mag that has a good spark, the rotation is not a big problem as they can be changed (I'd need to read up to tell you how it's done but it's not to difficult). Sorry to have to say that after buying your first engine you have this problem but it's one of the biggest problems us stationary engine guys have and one of the biggest expenses. I have a few engines that needs the mags repaired and everytime I save some money up to get the job done I end up spending the money on another engine

I hope you can resolve your problem without it costing you to much money,

Stu.

Some mags will work in either direction, some are only directional because of the impulse and some are fully directional - just to make things easy. And helpfully, I don't know which ones are which!

Then of course there's the fact you can get Ds that are clockwise, and Ds that are anticlockwise so which one you have dictates somewhat which one you need, if you see what I mean... (I may well be getting one of each soon, but that depends on the current owner and how much he likes me!)

Hi guys

i was just wondering if i found a wico mag or similar what kind of price should it be.

Cheers

I have heard of Wico mags being fitted but you'd be better of with a Lucas mag. As for price anything from £30 - £60 depending on who else is bidding on ebay at the time. The price may even be higher it's a long time since I checked the prices out.

Stu.

I was offered a choice of 4 different WICO A Series mags this weekend, all sparking well, for £40 each, they were priced at £45 but we've bought from the bloke before. One of these was a military type screened one, complete with screened HT lead & plug cap, which would've done me very well indeed, but I didn't have £40 on me at the time. I wouldn't personally have wanted to buy one of them until I got my screw driver & multimeter out anyway, & I wasn't sure if the bloke would have liked that very much.

I can tell you that the Lucas SR-1 & the RS-1 are both directional magnetos, & so is the WICO A series as well. Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact they are rotating magnet type mags???

I have spoken to a magneto expert tonight and he said that to change the direction of a clockwise mag you would need some parts from the anticlockwise magneto ... not sure exactly what parts but imagine parts like the points as operate the other way and the main rotor etc . Have researched this the wico Is a good mag plenty about too but there are so many variations ..

I would recommend if you was to change the direction of a wico A send it off to a specialist they know what they are doing and probally would have the parts to change it .

matt

matt86 wrote:
I would recommend if you was to change the direction of a wico A send it off to a specialist they know what they are doing and probally would have the parts to change it .

matt

Yep, definitely a specialist job that one. I think the magnet rotor is an important bit, but I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure the Lucas SR-1 has off-set magnets, so would definitely be different. Points could possibly be altered, but the cam would most probably be different as well.

Best idea is just to look at the arrow on whatever you're buying & make sure it's pointing the correct way, I reckon a re-direction job could be as expensive as a coil re-wind. (although some of the Lucas ones don't actually have an arrow, they have clockwise or anticlockwise stamped on them, but you know what I mean).

I know that a coil rewind is not that much in respect to some mags you can buy . But i bet you could get a wico reversed for around £60 figure ... so look out for one with right direction but as i said there is plenty of time . you also have to consider is the tapper on the armature spindle the same pitch and size and will the height of the mag be ok to line up otherwise adaptor plates will need to be made ...

a job that costs just the mag could end up being alot more if you need to get someone to make a adapter / conversion plate and alter the tapper / key way etc . If i was you i would either buy a RS1 or a sr1 clockwise if it is the normal rotation if your coil is duff get it re wound even if it means saving up for a bit ... then you know your mag will be spot on .

A good chap is martyn from a company called vintage magnetos .

Hope this helps matt