Lister Va

[Rom]

Re. Potter

More and more folks are showing up on the forum from around the Abacos now... gonna need a club or something soon!

[Apogee]

Chris,

You might consider just taking the parts to a competent machine shop.  They can re-chrome or weld the original crank back up and machine to spec as if new.  Done all of the time...

Also, regarding the cylinder, again a decent shop can just machine the existing cylinder, sleeve it and machine back to original spec.  Again, done all of the time...

Just my $.02,

Steve

[Rom]

That is very true, unfortunatly you would have to carry the parts to the states for that kind of work, and for a sensible price. I had them repair an hourglassed hub in the drive flywheel for a VA... cost round $2200US for the repair here. If the damned thing wasnt so heavy I would have had it in the states... hell if it wasnt so rare, I would have deep sixed it.

[Apogee]

Hey Rom,

I guess I'm a bit puzzled why you guys wouldn't just run the stuff to Florida to have the work done.

I used to run a sportfishing boat from Miami down to Abaco and Nassau on a regular basis and it wasn't that far.  We used to fish the tongue...

Anyway, I would think there should be some way to get the stuff up to the US inexpensively to have work done.  At the very least, if there currently isn't, perhaps a good business opportunity is knocking...  ;-)

Lots and lots of $$$ head your way with many expensive toys that often need repairing, and if there was a reliable way to have stuff fixed or transported for work like that, I'm sure folks would use it.  Simply marketing like anything else...

Man, I miss your part of the world!!!

Just a thought...

Steve

[Chris]

OK I was replying to this and everything went blank and my posting went ? so I may be repeating myself.

Yes Rom and Potter we should have a Lister club here in Abaco. FYI I have about five cylinder liners in various condition from may be fair to poor. I could use a set of the felt seals if you have any. My Lister is slopering. Normal but more than normal! Rom when you got the new crank, was it a sleeved version or did you"up date" to the roller bearing type? If so any problems? Just wondering if I need to stay with the sleeved version, which is now harder to come by. I have no problems with the original sleeved type. 100,000 hrs has stood the test of time.

Re hour glass flywheels. Yep got them too. I have to keep banging the gib key back in place to secure "Tings" trying to figure out what to do. JB weld to fill the voids?

The old gurus for these Listers here in Abaco are:

Bill Johnson now with J&J Electrical
Will Bethel K&S Refridgeration
John Heddon, with the elusive original 8-1/VA crank located some where on the Great Abaco Highway in the area of the sugar cane field/mill.

Willard Bethel Hopetown Harbour View grocery. Not in the buisness but knows them inside out.

Jerry Whiteleather some times in Hope Town and has a collections of VA's, 8-1 and other stuff in Hope town.

Rom I assume from your posting that you imported directly from Atual Patel Anand Enterprises. How did that work out. How did you organise it? I need some parts. I was in contact with him at one time and was going to order then Central Maine showed up and thought I would support them tying to give people closer to home the buisness. Ordered some connecting rod bearings, gibs keys, gib key puller, oiler drain plug. Good service and quick turn around fair prices. Drop shipped to a Fla address. They did not have sleeve type crank shaft or sleeve bearing. I was going to place an order with them for that to add to their order when the EPA stepped in and situation got scr--wed up and held off.

Enough for now, all the best.
Good spares on hand. Three sets of connection rod bearings, about 6 gib keys (3 sets) Gib key pullerr for loan.
oil pump, injector pump, several injectors, One original oil bath air filter. Cylinder liners. I don't really know in what servicable condition they are in. I just never throw this stuff away.

womph womph womph

Sorry to bore those out side of Abaco

Chris

[dubbleUJay]

One original oil bath air filter.

Chris

Hi Chris, any chance of posting a picture of that oil bath filter please?

I was looking for an original one when I got my CS, but couldn't even find a picture, so I ended up cutting a VW diesel's to fit. I have one from a Petter AP, but its to small  Maybe it looked more or less the same as they are from the same time-period, I don't know.
I do believe in these filters though, had one on my now "extinct" Land Rover Series III 2.25 diesel a very long time ago.

dubbleUJay

[potter]

Hi Chris my CS 8/1 is a combo of Willard Bethels and Elbow Cay Clubs old units managed to get one out of the two ,armature on the gen head shorted though.
  Potter

[Rom]

Chris,

The bearings and crank we rebuilt this VA with on MoW are the standard RA Lister 'bush type'(thas what I refer to uhm as), albeit from India. The crank is EN-9 rather than EN-16 like RA Lister cranks, but we make do. I think the bush type bearings are much better than the TRBs. I'm sure the tapered roller bearings are the limiting factor in us getting sensible sized flywheels from over in India. I took my Powerline flywheels off and could damn near throw them on my shoulder compared to the SoM wheels around here. Atul says his wheels are rated at 150kg... 330Lbs thereabouts. I'm sure that must be both! But in a TRB variant, the bearing is right beside the journal, and it must be 5 inches of shaft to the seal, WITHOUT support. I'm sure, even with the high grade metal of the RA Lister crank, it would fail with flywheels ala SoM, hell it should fail with Indian wheels... but I havent heard of such a thing happening. But with the bush type bearing, the crank being supported to within 2 inches of the bearing, and i am quite sure this plays an important role in the amount of weight you can hang off the crank.

Lol, ramblin again. I am an avocate for just about anything from the Empire, well except unions, you see how they destroyed 2 great superpowers so far. I am sure that RA Lister had it right in the bush bearing, very low loading and such, its supposed to last forever!

I wouldnt dare modify a Dursley Lister to TRBs, the day I cant get the cranks and such anymore, such an engine shall be retired.

I am hoping to shoot off another order to India in the new year for parts, armed with your list of folks still around, there are loads of Listers still to be saved! I am always looking for another to save from the smelting pot in China. nudge nudge. If you havent located a crank in that time, we can throw an extra in the crate along with other things you might need. I do have felt seals in Abaco available, with pretty much everything else except the castings and a single cylinder cam.

For the hourglassed flywheel... the last one I had done was refitted with a taperlock bush. Its piece of mind, that you can buy for a large price. If I could do it again, I would just have it sleeved. It has to be repaired before you use on a new crank though!

Re Apogee

Its a great idea in theory. Unfortunatly the sportfish folks i talked to werent interested in carryin a 350lbs rusty lump of British iron on the back of their boats. The thing is, technically you have to pay export duties aswell as import duties on the repairs, so legitimate business is alotta work, for customs doesnt care about service. And to run such a system, a boat to frieght stuff over now... $3 grand n fuel a way, so the boat who have to be loaded to cover that, and to be honest I cant see people waiting months for things to be done... Waiting to get the boat full of work, getting it across, repaired, and back here... most likely not repaired the right way! lol.

The way things work now is about as good as it gets I think, unless they shutdown our customs system for something else.

Ok

FIN

[Chris]

Rom,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I would like to get on board for a spares order. I have a fishing line out trying to snag another VA, with a bad crank. From what I have been told the pinion on the crank is missing some teeth. CJ welding says that they can fix it, but don't know the $s. Don't yet know about the idler gear. That may be shot too. I am hoping that the flywheels are good and that they would serve me until I can get mine sorted out. I would not mine having two VA's working in case one goes down. Re: felt seals. I may be ok for the short go. Cleaned and flipped the metal "flapper" vent valve and seem to be getting better vacuum in the crank case> less seepage through the felt seals. This is probably a much less of an issue with the revised "Indian" version. Yes I like the sleaved bearings, 3 inches or so of support on the shaft EACH side. The SOM flywheels are HEAVY. In my younger days I used to be able to man handle them off myself. I don't do that alone anymore. Only got one back!

Potter. You got a dead gen head? My unit went dead years ago. Right now I have a Lima 5 KVA no electric start. I am slowly working on trying a golf cart starter/gen. Scounged the starter, now I just need time to try and see if it will work. Not going to try to start with compression on. Just something to get the unit rolling over. My wife cannot crank the Lister fast enough to get it going. If it will roll it over under compression, now that would be a bonus. A st5 might be an economical solution. I don't know the ST generators other than what I have read on this site and the other one, which I could never get signed up on.

ROM how is your st head working out?

I am on woomp woomp power right now.

All the best,

Chris

[potter]

HI Chris I already have a ST 5 works great $317 on ebay landed $800 and change , could not convince customs it was a generator they insisted it was a part so high duty , the joys.
  Potter

[Rom]

Congrats on the thing running Chris.

I originally ordered 2 STs, both from Joel Koch, a 12 and 5. The 12kw was a dream, wired it in and off she went... but with the light flywheels of the powerline 16/2, there is a lil flicker in those twisted flouresents. After a week of running i noticed some play in the rotor, in that i could move it prolly an 1/8th inch back n forth. I gave the listeroid wheels a push and they had loads of play for a TRB bearin i thought, so i took the housings off, removed a shim on both sides and reassembled. and the slop is gone. Now the engine trys to walk around in a circle, haha. The ST is fine though, without the engine flywheels moving about like they were, the generator rotor stays still... well cept for that rotating bit.

The 5kw was more interesting, had a predictable knock. We opened it up, and found that the assembly fella musta been called away, and when he got back, forgot to hammer the metal flaps that hold the magnet coils on the rotor still, so they were floppin about a bit, haha.

On the import side, I must say I made out well, for some reason they felt 48% was correct... I didnt even know 48% was a number customs knew. Much better than the 75% last year I paid on a pallet of cart tyres because the shipper put a B/O electric cart controller on top. Dems electric tyres nah... What goes around, comes around.

[potter]

Powers off now mines not .
  Potter

[Chris]

Hey potter,

you gotta love BEC. No one else will. In 10 years living off grid I have have had, may be 4hrs with out power at one time. Gen problems. The last time I got a quote to bring power to me, it was $50K plus. This was so that I could have the pleasure of paying them ever month for power. $50k buys a lot of diesel even here.

Chris

[Rom]

Haha, I'm in Nassau at the moment, just heard over the net that it was off, and MoW Hardware had cutoff cable from their power. Cant remember if it was last year or the year before, but in that October they put in a battery backup for cable, then in Novemeber power went out for three days and that backup broke! Well I called and eventually, like 8 months later, for a storm, Cable came out and routed a drop cord from the unit to a outlet behind the hardware. Course if the jerry rig works, they shall never repair it. Well turns out this week they decided not to pay Cables power bill anymore, hence the disconnect halfway through the conversation. Cable might aswell be a government company, cause they sure act like one.

[potter]

Well I let her run all night although power did come back on, my WVO supply is up to about 150 gallons after a low during the slow restaurant period need to use some up  .
   Potter