Listers in the Isles

[Rom]

Taking Mobile_Bob's advice, I figured to post something.

I live on a small island in the Abacos, in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. A very small island, maybe a mile and a half long, and a 1/2 mile wide. I had been visiting here for a while now, and moved here a few years ago.

Maybe 10 years ago, JT, the diesel mechanic came home from another isle with a Lister VA with the cast iron startomatic base, no alternator. It came from a semi famous bar and grill on the next island called "Nippers". www.nippersbar.com. Anyhow, this thing had run nippers pretty much since it opened until mains power was supplied, which I guess is 7-8 years, and its ultimate demise was the A/c slip ring coming loose in the alternator. It went to a shop and was never seen again.

I saw it run once when it arrived, and it was in a lil trouble, compression was low, injector was on the way out and such. They had been running it on old veg oil filtered through a sock. He basically through it in the corner and it sat... through hurricanes and all the weather mother nature gives us.

Fast forward to this time last year.

A cousin of mine was doing some generator repairs for a fella on another isle... when what should happen? The power goes out, which is nearly a daily occurance. This older lady comes out of her house to my cousin and asks him to start her generator... which happens to be a Lister VA with a 4.25 SoM head and the C-channel steel base. SoM assisted starting isnt working so he hand starts it.
He heads back to his job jabbering about how he got it going on the first try, and the bloke says that he has one aswell, and it was outta service from a flywheel coming loose, and would my cousin want it.

Needless to say this engine appeared by his house a week or two later and he wanted me to inspect it. Rusted and crusted, hadnt been fired up in 5-6 years, and a torn up crankshaft with a hourglassed drive flywheel, we realised she was in a bad way.

Back down to JT. I asked about sourcing a junk engine or some parts for this old thing. He starts off with 'very expensive' and gives me a number of a fella named John that collected them all as they were removed from service. As people started with central airconditioning, many of these plants were replaced, which many regret now I'm sure. After weeks of trying to contact him, I found that he had a crankshaft, the last one imported into the country by the Lister dealership. He couldnt/still hasnt been able to locate it.

I started looking on ebay and just general google searches where I found Power Anand, utterpower and the listerengine.com forum.

After reading the forum from the oldest post to the newest, reading all of the utterpower site and their CD, and discussing with JT and my cousin on their needs, I made an order from Power Anand for a 16/2 and enough parts to save it and the 2 VAs from the scrapheap. Also made an order from Joel Koch for a 12kw and 5kw ST head. Ordered the serpentine pulley from George at utterpower.

At this time, I have the PowerAnand 16/2 driving the 12kw with a powersteering pump from a Mitsubishi driving a Dieselcraft OC20. It pumps the used motor oil through a copper coil on the exhaust and then through the centrifuge. Except for my nerves being shot over a blown oil line for the centrifuge, all is well on that system.

The VA that JT owns required its sump scooped out, the oil strainer was almost completely submerged in crap from a lifetime with little maintinence. The Bryce injector and pump were frozen and ended up replaced with the Bosch Mico units from Power Anand. We did manage to free up the orginials though. The head was packed tight with sand, that was blown into it over ten years of hurricanes. The valves were replaced and seats were installed in the head, for they had sunk more than an 1/8th of an inch into the head. A new alloy piston and ring set and a hone and the engine is running., and is in the process of having the ST5KW fitted to the SoM base.

The Va of my cousin was torn right down for painting. New bush bearing housings were installed with modern oil seals, new crankshaft and an oil filter. The hourglassed flywheel was machined to a taper bush for a rediculous amount of money and is ready to be reinstalled. He is restoring on weekends so it is still not running.

And that is the short verison of that story. 

Rom

[lowspeedlife]

Great story Rom. Welcome to the forum & congradulations on the restoration projects. it's allways good to have people who are willing to put a little time & effort into these wonderful pieces of history & have them live again. If you have any pictures you can post them on the forum here or, there is another site www.listerenginegallery.com that can host them also, I'm sure everyone here would love to see them.

   Scott R.

[WGB]

Thats pretty cool Rom.
I've been talking about visiting your islands, wish I could of seen the place when it ran on all the Listers!

[Rom]

For a long time in a lil town called Cherokee Sound south of here, they ran 2 VAs alternate days to supply power for the town. Maybe 25 homes, but of course the only thing they had electrical wise was lights and maybe a town radio. Simpler times they were. I shall try to take some photos of the RA Listers tomorrow.

[Rom]

Talking about visiting here, it depends on whether you want the gambling part and the flashy tourist stuff. I personally recommend staying away from the city. Here in the outislands, I can take you to the secluded beaches were your the only one there like in the commericals. Out here, this is where the real island life is, no traffic, smog, or people trying to sell ya things. Very mellow...

For example...the town on the mainland that supplies our island chain here, is small enough that a couple businesses list their address as 'by the light' for there is only one traffic light.

[WGB]

Hey Rom, we need the pics!!!
Please.

[Chris]

Rom, I just logged on, first time. I had tried to log on to the other, now dead site with no luck, for many years.
I also have a Lister VA here in Abaco. Also salvaged and now working. It slobbers oil like most Listers. I will go into more deal about the salvage operation later. Time to go to work. I have been involved with Lister VA's and 8/1's for almost as long as I can remember 40 or so years. Good engines, almost impossible to kill.

Good story. I spoke with Johnny at Nippers yesterday and he have me a quick back ground story of the "Nippers" VA. More later.

I live at Schooner Bay 30 miles or so south of Marsh Harbour. Off grid. Propane refridg etc.

I hope I have logged on in the right area and you get this message.

[Rom]

Hey Chris

Man I'd love to be in a situation to go offgrid in such a way.

When ya get a chance, I would love to hear an up to date story on the Nipper VA!

I must say I forgot pics, but when I get back home on Sunday I shall try to get a few pics together.

[Apogee]

Sure Rom,

Come to Abaco with your nice sportfishing boat and hang out...

"Here in the outislands, I can take you to the secluded beaches were your the only one there like in the commericals."

For the others that don't know, Abaco used to be one of the islands where the pirates operated from that stole boats for drug runs...  And yes, I'm serious.  I was warned multiple times about staying away from certain places and Abaco was one of them...  

Rom is likely a pirate...  

Steve

[Rom]

Haha yea

I have heard many a story of drug running through here in the 80's.

[Chris]

Hey stev,
Pirates are every where. Yes we have them too, but ours are  tame compared to those in our country, especially WALL STREET and WASHINGTON. The bigest money laundry place in the world is NEW YORK CITY. No money can be wired into the Bahamas unless it come through New York. Sorry about the politics. You started it!

Chris
PS I won't do this again.

[Apogee]

Hey guys,

It doesn't bother me a bit.

I really, really miss your guy's part of the world.  Spent 3 months down there running boats around and just LOVED IT!!!!

Very, very beautiful place!

Regarding the pirate thing, it pretty much blew my mind that folks would hijack million dollar yachts, shoot the crew members and do a drug run with them and then pull the plug and sink them with the dead folks onboard.  I'd never run across anything like that before, and like I said, I was warned many times by folks in the know of where to go and where to stay away from.  And even then, the boat was armed to the teeth just in case...

To those that wonder, remember Miami Vice?  Well there's a private island next to Bimini that is very private where presidents, rockefeller's, and other super rich play.  It also has a DEA dock, helipad, and facility complete with cigarette boats (at least used to be).  That show wasn't completely unrealistic as I've been there and seen it with my own eyes...

I wish I could be down there living and running on Lister power.  I've thought about going back lots and lots of times.  If I could figure out how to make a living, I'd be there in a heartbeat; hurricanes and all.

I hope you do understand that I couldn't resist messing with you don't you?    

Please post pics of your setup when you get the chance as it sounds interesting!

Best regards,

Steve

[Shawn]

Hi this is Shawn Roberts i got a VA Lister It was made in 1967 the engine runs like a dream but got a hard time with the backend. Only 108 volts and when i but a load on it the volts goes down to 95,90,88, and so on . Here is my lister on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJPRIDVrD_g

[rcavictim]

Shawn,

I think you did a lovely job restoring your VA.  I like the color scheme and that particular shade of yellow is my favorite.

[Chris]

Hey Shawn,

I thought you got your generator voltage problem sorted out?

I bet you have a bad bridge recterfer. Have you checked that?

Chris
Schooner Bay