Now to tackle the Lister D
Put it on a couple of blocks of wood and looked
at it.
I wonder how you pull this apart, better get a hammer and
chisel.
Only joking - removed the spark plug, and filled the cylinder with
kerosene and left it sit for a week.
Tried again, still stuck so off with its head. The piston was stuck half
way with a good half inch of rust crystals lining the bore all the way to
the top, it must have been full of water for quite some time. How to
tackle this problem, rang Coley for advice ìGet a metal blade, like an old
kitchen knife and scrape away as much of the rust as possible, then clean
up the bore with some 800 - 1000 wet n dryî.
So cleaned out the bore over the next couple of nights, placed a round
block of wood on the piston and gave it a couple of taps with a hammer -
success, we have movement. Cleaned the lip off the bore as best I could
and put a light coating of oil on the bore. Gave the motor a few cranks,
then replaced the head. Air was leaking around the head gasket, but only a
little bit so I decided to fuel up and see if it would go. Three turns on
the handle and away she went, trying to bounce across the shed floor - I
just had it sitting on a couple of pieces of Oregon, holding it in place
with my hand on top of the engine. I know, a silly thing to do, but I was
just too anxious to get it going - wonít do that again.
Shut it down with a grin from ear to ear. Iíve done it, it works - now to
pull it apart and give it a complete restoration.
A phone call to Greg McNiece at Rally Badges and I had purchased my new
bible, ìLister D-Type Restorationî by Nigel McBurney.
As I was soon to discover, for the first time restorer this is an
invaluable book, giving step by step instructions for dismantling,
troubleshooting and re-assembly. If you intend restoring a Lister D for
the first time, I recommend getting a copy of this book, even before you
get the motor, and you shouldnít go wrong.
Working step by step through the book, I dismantled the motor, placing
nuts, bolts and pins in appropriately labelled zip-lock plastic bags.
Drained the crankcase of the old oil, removed the governor/magneto drive.
Extracted the key from the flywheel relatively easily. Not possessing a
flywheel puller, and a scrounge around the shed failed to locate enough
bits to make one I attempted to knock the flywheel of with a big rubber
mallet, a metal hammer would have marked the flywheel.
(I discovered later when stripping the paint from the flywheel, some
agricultural mechanic had taken to the flywheel with a metal hammer to get
it off as there are quite a lot of dints on the inside face.)
After two nights I gave this idea up as a joke, the flywheel wasnít
budging. Idea, what if I held the motor on its side and tapped the end of
the crankshaft (gently) on a block of wood. Three taps and off it came,
and so did an accumulation of oil out of the bearing housing. A rather
unorthodox way of removing the flywheel I suppose, but I donít recommend
you try this at home because even with the head, carby, exhaust and
governor/Magneto mounts removed the motor still seems to weigh a ton!
No other problems were encountered during disassembly, so with the Lister
now in a million bits I started with the crankcase, cleaning it inside and
out. A wire brush on a 100mm angle grinder removed the paint quite easily.
Another discovery, someone had given this motor a ìfreshen upî some time
ago and they had just painted right over the old oil and dirt stuck in all
the nooks and crannys.
Gave the bore a good hone, removed the lip from where the piston had stuck
with rust. The bore has a couple of pits, but I donít want to work it hard
so Iím not concerned about them. Primed and painted the crankcase. Cleaned
all the internal bits and started reassembly. The gudgeon pinís worn a
bit, but Iíll see how she runs before I think about getting a new one.
With the crankshaft and piston back in, the motor was going to start
getting heavy pretty quickly so I made up a trolley from some 4îx4î Red
Gum which was once a post from the old shed I had pulled down the year
before. Planed the aged sides from the wood, cut it to length and bolted
it together to make a simple little trolley. Couple of coats of clear
estapol and the wood looked magnificent. Glenn, my brother-in-law, was
kind enough to lend me a set of trolley wheels, so I cleaned them up and
painted them matt black. Now I had the means to move the motor easily as
it was put back together.
I took to the old paint on the head with the angle grinder/wire brush and
removed the green paint, unfortunately I got half way across one side when
the word ìLEVELî appeared from under the green paint.
Damn, the original gold lettering and I had obliterated ìWATERî, too late
now. Turned the head onto its side and carefully removed the top layer of
green and there appeared ìThe Lister by RA Lister, Dursley, Englandî in
the original hand painted gold lettering. Went and got the camera for more
restoration progress pics and so I could refer back for the location of
the lettering when I paint it back on once the motor is finished.
Once the head was paint stripped, I draw filed the gasket face and checked
the valves for leaks - perfect, it wonít need a valve grind or refacing.
Cleaned out as much scale from the water jacket/hopper as I could and
primed and painted the head.
Cleaned up the copper head gasket then gave it a liberal coating of Copper
gasket paint and bolted the head back on. The three brass domed head nuts,
located in the water hopper, had been used without washers previously so
their bases had deformed to match the holes in head. I filed them back
flat and reinstalled them with new 1/2 inch brass washers.
Carefully reinstalled the pushrods, careful not to drop them in the
crankcase. (TIP: Wrap a length of thin wire around the top of each pushrod
before installing them, then if you accidently drop one into the crankcase
you can easily retrieve it). Re-fitted the rocker gear and set the
clearances.
With the head back on, the Lister was looking nearly finished and very
resplendent on its new trolley.
The governor needed a bit of work. The pins which push the actuating arm
had worn down almost half way, so I punched out the retaining pins and
rotated them 180. The face of the actuating arm was almost worn completely
away, so I got Coley to build it back up and reshape it in his lathe -
looks as good as new. Primed and gave one coat of paint to the governor
housing, magneto drive and mount separately, then put it all back together
on the crankcase before giving it a final coat. Looking good.
The fuel tank had a couple of small leaks so I took it out to Coleyís and
he resoldered both ends and the join along the top. No leaks now. Got it
back home and primed and painted it and the two mounting brackets/straps.
Between coats I had dismantled the carby and rubbed it all back. Nothing
wrong here so I just repainted it and put it all back together.
The motor didnít have a muffler when Rod owned it, so going by the
dimensions off an old brochure I downloaded from the web, Rod manufacturer
a new one from a piece of pipe and some 2.5mm plate. It ended up pretty
heavy and I was worried about it hanging off the 2 small studs from the
side of the motor so out to Coleyís again and he put it in the lathe and
turned off about half the metal. Now feels a lot better.
With all the bits back on the motor, I only had to reinstall the fuel tap,
fuel line, filter and water drain tap -ie. all the brass bits.
I polished them all up using some steel wool and kerosene and when each
piece was nice and shinny, gave it a coat of clear lacquer to preserve the
finish.
Finished, I think Now with the motor finally finished late on a Monday night I was keen to
get it going, but I had to wait until the following Saturday. Put a splash
of fuel in the tank, tapped the lead to the spark plug, in case I had to
stop it quickly, oiled the linkages and filled up the governor oiler.
Engaged the starting handle and after a couple of attempts, puff, pant,
etc; it didnít want to fire. . Spark - check, compression - check, fuel -
hmmm, pulled out the plug and poured a little bit of petrol into the head.
Replaced the plug and cranked it over again, she fired and gave a couple
of putts and nothing else - okay. Opened the needle another 1/4 turn and
cranked away, took a few turns then away she went so I stopped it, waited
half an hour for it to cool down then filled the hopper up with water and
put a couple of litres of petrol in the tank. Started her up and let her
putt merrily away for the next half hour. I then stopped her and decided
to see how easy a re-start would be - uh oh, as the motor was slowing down
you could hear a very loud clunk with each revolution and when I engaged
the starting handle and turned it over I could feel and hear the clunk on
each compression stroke. Sounds like the gudgeon pin was a bit worse for
wear than I thought.
The flywheel key had also worked about half-way out, so I will have to get
a new key, the fit is not very tight
Okay, so the D is in bits again and the problem has been found, little end
bush is worn 8 thou out of round - not the gudgeon pin. So after a flick
through T.O.M.M., found an ad for Lister parts and gave Brian Wells in
Tamworth a ring and ordered a new big end bush, little end bush and head
gasket (TIP: donít paint the head gasket with Copper Gasket Paint if you
want to pull the motor apart again and reuse the gasket, the paint gives a
great seal but sticks like you-know-what to a blanket)
Finally, September 2003 and she's all back
together, new little end bush, new big end bush and a new head gasket. The
big end bearing wasn't bad, but seeing as I had the motor in bits again I
may aswell replace it.
Put some fuel in the tank, gave the crank
handle a few turns and away she went, no nasty knocking this time. Stopped
the motor, and let her cool down for half an hour, then filled the hopper
with water and started it up again. She ran for over 1 hour and I tried a
few stop and restarts all with success.
Have purchased a new set of stickers for the
Little Lister and I will publish some new photos soon! |
