Lister B help

Hi, could somebody give me some advice about my Lister B engine, this is the first B engine I have owned and I am not familiar with them, when I got the engine it was in a right state covered in rust and mud so I decided to restore it, I dismantled everything apart from the hopper head as there was plenty of compression and the valves were operating ok, I cleaned everything and undercoated it and painted it, I cleaned the carb, fitted a new spark plug and HT lead and fitted new points in the contact breaker, timed the ignition at 21/2" before TDC, then I tried to give it a run, it fired once then it just kept spitting petrol out of the carb and refused to do anything else, so I am hoping somebody can give me some advice.
Thank, Bernard.

Hi Bernard,

Will need to start from the beginning TDC is when jib key slot is bottom centre and points adjusted to just about to open.
I presume you have a good spark at plug.
Are the governor weights nice and free to move, is there enough pressure on throttle adjuster spring that the throttle slide is fully up
in carb, if it is, it wont hurt to tighten the adjuster a bit more as you can adjust when it finally starts, it may possibly be sucking in to much fuel due to over flow fitting on carb to high I had to put 3 washers on mine to stop it from running to rich, the mixture screw on carb has 3 cuts on top 1 is for stop when mixture screw is fully down then looking clockwise middle is normal running and 3rd for start, choke should be around 3/4 closed, then opened fully when started, mixture is then screwed down to create smooth running, it might help if at first start you take the plug out and heat it up a bit,, as this will help if there is to much fuel in chamber, I do have a hand book if you want me scan and send to you by mail, hopefully you get her going soon, guess I was lucky my B started first time after my makeover, have you seen the thread I did. Good luck, Richard

Thanks Richard that has given me something to work on, are the points supposed to open at TDC, I thought it was 18 degrees before.
Bernard.

Hi as you say 18 degrees before TDC and points just about to open, another thing have you checked valve gaps as they are 10 thou for inlet and 12 thou for exhaust, then check them again when it has had some running time. Regards Richard

Hi Richard, you have given one or two things to looking at but one thing that is puzzling me is the governor linkage as there are quite a few different adjustments and I wasn't sure how to set it up, also when the engine is stationary and the governor isn't operating in what position should the butterfly flap behind the carb be in.
Thanks, Bernard.

Hi Bernard,

I have attached a couple of photo's of my B for you to ponder over.



As you can see the governor slide is pushed into governor housing this due to tension on adjuster spring.
When its running the weights pull the slide towards the flywheel and in turn pulls down the slide in the carb.





The slide is upper most in carb, when the flywheels are turning the slide will come down, the more pressure on adjuster spring higher
the revs, as to increase revs the slide has to go further up into the carb




Hope this helps, Regards   Richard

Thanks again, Richard.

Hi Richard, thanks for the photo of the linkage, I am sorry to be a pain in the backside but could you send me a photo of the top of the needle valve adjuster and explain again what the three marks do again.
Thanks, Bernard.

Hi Bernard,

The three cuts are stop, run ( normal ) and start. The one to the right of the screw is stop, to set the needle up you need to either take out screw or undo enough so that it has free play from the ratchet, turn the needle screw until you just feel pressure, do not over tighten as this could damage the needle, put small screw back in or tighten up, you now have your stop position, mine happens to be in line with the ratchet, going clock wise the second cut is the running position for normal running or there about small adjustments can be made when running, the third cut is for starting from cold.
Basically to start engine turn needle anti clockwise until it lines up to where the stop position was, as soon as it starts turn needle clockwise to running position.

As you can see my stop position is centre forward, to start I turn needle so that the third cut is in this position and when started I turn needle until second cut is in this position, or there about's.

Hope this helps, Regards Richard

Thanks Richard thats just what I wanted.