Listeroid un-crating!

[SDWATT]

Hi all,

I am now un-crating my listeroid with plans to get her running.
any advice or suggestions are welcomed.

regards,
Sean

[veggie]

Hi Sean,

Welcome to the world of Listeroid owners.
Like us, your IQ just dropped 20 points from your wife's point of view 

Something to check which many people miss is the reed in the main crankcase breather.
Remove the single bolt holding the concave cover and make sure the reeds are blocking the three breather holes when in the static position.
Mine were bent upward slightly making it impossible to seal the crankcase vacuum on the piston up-stroke.

veggie

[veggie]

Oh yes....another thing.
The GM90's (like many Listeroids) use a straight threaded plug for an oil drain plug.
The thread is British Standard. (Straight thread)
The Indians use "sealing string" to seal the threads. 

Take out the plug as a sample and go to your local hose/fittings supplier (In Canada it's Greenline Hose) and get a proper BS threaded plug with a rubberized gasket washer.
This will seal against the flat face at the end of the threads.

Costs about $7 and it's much nicer to work with.

veggie

[mbryner]

And on some that reed valve is plugged up w/ green Indian paint.

Assuming you know all the really basic things like making sure every nook and cranny are checked for sand, and turning the fuel rack adjuster nut way down so you don't get an overspeed when you start it up for the first time.   Bleeding the fuel lines are a bear the first time, too.

George at Utterpower.com used to have flanges w/ a spot milled out for a simple Napa thermostat for a decent price.   Don't know if he still does.

Welcome!

Marcus

[SDWATT]

Thank you for the tips. I will have to see if I can locate a manual for this unit to see how to make the fuel rod adjustment. And for that matter just how to get her going.
It seems simple enough, would hate to have an overspeed related problem.

[LowGear]

Hi SDWATT,

I'm really surprised no one has steered you to the CD that is available at http://www.utterpower.com/products/utterpower-cd/. 

Casey

[veggie]

sdwatt,

The governor adjusting screw is shown in this picture.
Unscrew it (remove spring tension) to slow the engine.
In this picture, the engine is set at the design speed of 900 rpm.
Unscrew your adjuster so there's less threads extending than this example and you should be ok.
If you over do it (less then 750) the engine speed might hunt a bit because the spring is designed for 900.

veggie

[playdiesel]

While my experiance is nowhere near what some of these other fellows have done I have been in a few Indian clones (4) and they have taught me to trust the assemblers not one bit. Took them all completely down for cleaning and inspection and for one reason or another in each case I was glad I did. Bad assembly, dirt, parts with major defects, just plain wrong parts in any combination including all of the above. For no longer than it takes the full inspection and tear down route gets the nod from me.

[SDWATT]

Thank you all for the advice so far.

I have cleaned out the internals and cleaned up the ancillary outer connections with better hoses and clamps etc.
I am currently looking for a suitable belt driven oil pump with external oil filter assembly. Advice?


The internals were not as dirty as I have seen videos of but dirty enough to have caused long term issues.
I would like to secure or affix a rare earth magnet somewhere on the inside to pick up anything metallic etc(filings, etc). I am trying to locate a drain plug that would have a magnet embedded in the end. Advice?

I did have to add a washer to the drain plug. Apparently those chaps can cast an engine but have not heard of a washer other than animal hair?

The bloody "bondo" is driving me mad. all of the access ports now look ragged due to the bondo falling off when touched.


One thing that is a little concerning is that when I hand roll the engine I can hear the individual bearings rolling around in the race's. I am using 10w30 in the crank case and they are saturated. I just assumed that hearing the bearings is unusual? maybe not. I am being very OCD about this though.

I have not started her up yet. I am just hand cranking her and swapping out the oil to remove any contamination. Prudence may pay off in the long run.

Looking forward to any advice.
can someone sell me a digital copy of that illustrious cd?

canada post being on strike has made it unlikely I will order the cd by snail mail.

[LowGear]

can someone sell me a digital copy of that illustrious cd?

This would be an issue to address with George. 

Casey

[SDWATT]

Thank you!
I will ask George if he could do that.

[quinnf]

Glad you're taking the time to clean it up.  But I'd recommend a complete tear down after you hear it run.  There are places grit can hide that you simply can't get to without a complete teardown.  It doesn't take very long to take it apart once you have the flywheels off.  Maybe an afternoon to reassemble it.

Re: the bearing noise, TRB bearings are great but those engines tend to have a lot of bearing noise as they turn over.  The engine will never sound like a British Lister.  That's the price you pay for not having the plain bearings. 

Quinn

[piperpilot3tk]

The "bearing noise" you are referring to is valve train gear noise, which will be loud due to straight cut gears, but is probably really loud due to excessive gear clearance/backlash.  If the TRB main bearings were really that loud they would last ten minutes. I would do a full teardown, I did and I am positive if I had not, I would have been replacing most of the major parts within a couple hundred hours of operation.

[LincTex]

I am currently looking for a suitable belt driven oil pump with external oil filter assembly. Advice?

I am going to use an old Ford F150 Pickup power steering pump (because it is what is laying around for free)

They are not really high volume, but oh well. That's fine. The guts from the pressure valve (in the outlet side) need to be removed.

[LincTex]

Really, if you get creative you can come up with almost anything... 

I made something very similar to this to fill an overhead bulk oil tank (in a service shop) from 55 gallon drums. Not the same, but close.

http://veggear.blogspot.com/2009/04/here-is-how-to-make-your-own-waste-oil.html