Folks
A friend asked us up to his farm for a couple of nights. I was excited because I knew he had an oldish petrol Gainsborough that had not run for years and he was happy for me to have a crack at it. Turns out he had an old pump shed with another stationary engine in it and he thought I should take a look at that one instead. Could not believ my eyes when I opened the door and there is an early model diesel Lister that had not been started for about 30 years, maybe more.
As a novice I could not identify it but this is what I can tell you. It has two large fly wheels and the pushrods run on the outside. The plate states 3.5 hp and 650 rpm. The serial number is 462315. I am unsre of the vintage but to me it could be 1930's??
I had never seen or started one of these but could tell it was complete. After a good check over I gave it a crank but there was no compression at all. I identified the compression lever at the base of the exhaust pushrod but it has seized in compression mode and made no difference once it had been rectified.
We cracked open all the fuel lines one by one to ensure the motor was getting fuel and when we cranked there was good pressure where the fuel line eneter the top of the motor.
Still nothing. Frustrated I went to the house and rang a friend. He said after many years being idle the valves may not be seating so I returned and gently tapped the rocker arm with a hammer. Still no compression. Frustrated I just began cranking hard and flicked the compression lever on. The motor gave no signs of life and coasted to stop. As it did I noticed the faintest whisp of black smoke from the muffler. It had burnt some fuel. I cranked again like mad and we flicked the compression on. The motor ran down but more black smoke. I knew we were onto something. We did it again but this time, ever so slowly the whole think just came to life. I removed the crank and slowly the revs built up until in all its glory the motor stopped blowing noticable smoke, settled and ran beautifully.
We all threw hight fives, jumping up and down awe inspired that this beautiful motor had come to life.
We ran it for a couple of minutes then turned it off as we have not yet done a job on the cooling system. This is to follow.
Once we stopped the motor I wanted to check the compression and would you believe it there was so much compression you can forget turning it over with out the decompression lever to assisti.
Well that about wraps up my weekend. Can anyone assist me with identifying this motor? I gather it is very collectable.
Cheers
Tom G
