Yep, I was right in my original assertion... pig ugly!

http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/Technical/Startomatic1.htm

What makes you think this would be easy? I'm an english rubber technologist and this system still drives me mad.
Try:

http://www.afmusa.com/doc_generator.asp?doc_id=3731

And best of Britsh luck! 

Cheers

Brian

Hi,
   Sorry this reply took so long, you've probably worked all of this out by now, but here goes anyway!
By the sound of it , you've got one of the non detachable cylinder head versions, same as mine. I assume that the core plug is part of the casting process because i can see no other use for it.The easiest way to decoke the head is to remove the big end bolts and remove the barrel/head/piston all in one go.Careful, it weighs twice as much as you'd think! . With the piston out, the easiest way to remove the carbon is probably to send it for a dip in the hot tank at yourlocal engine shop.I used the oldtimer's trick of heating up a patch of the offending carbon with the oxy torch until it's bright red, then turn off the acetylene and blow straight oxygen at it. Works best if the whole casting is warmed up to maybe 100 deg C first. Don't try this inside cos the smoke is like a blacksmiths forge being lit!
I have a book from the 30's which says that you can do the above in situ by removing the valve caps after the engine has been run up to temperature. I wasn't game to try it!

Keep up the good work!

Brian

Guy,
     Have you been approached for the "Grumpy Old Men" series on the TV?
 Incidentally, I know what you mean about the anal sorts. Wonder what they'll say to my nickel plated carb and electronic ignition? They'll never see it though, cos this is destined to be a working engine.
    Incidentally, this attitude must be something to do with the pommie blood - I spent the first 20 years of my life in sunny Burton on Trent and still can't shake the B***** accent!

Cheers,

Brian

Gerry H,
          I'm sure you're right about the round corners in the chamber,I just couldn't think of an easy way to do it(I've never seen an Indian plug).Dead spots have to be a bad thing.I've often wondered what goes on in a c/o valve engine as there is only a small hole to allow air into and out of the low pressure cavity during normal running. Must be heaps of turbulence in there, which must be a good thing.
         The valve pockets were different between the heads on my twin.I can't remember the detail, but I wrote down 5cc's per head which must have been the average.Percentage wise, this is a lot less than the 7cc Kevin got.
         I'm not at all confident that these engines are consistent within one factory, let alone between factories. Somewhere in these hallowed pages there is a reference to removing the crank handle before disengaging the valve lifter when starting.I would have no chance of that, and in fact need to give a pretty good heave to get over compression even cranking at max speed.My wife is unable to start the monster even though she can get the cranking revs.
        Incidentally, how many wives/partners get involved ? Maybe we should start a thread for "Lister widows" to air their grievances? Thinking about it, that's probably not such a good idea!
"listerwives.com" would probably attract a few of the wrong sort of people....don't even THINK about reader's wives.....


Cheers,

Brian

A few extra gems I've learned the hard way!

Automotive alternators appear to be very inefficient for a home power setup.I hooked up a 35A(24v) alternator to a spare 5hp honda motor to charge my batteries with less noise than the 5 Kva unit.It had the standard A section v belt (PLEASE, nobody mention serpentine...!) which probably didn't help, but when putting out its rated 840W the Honda was pulling for all it was worth.840w is just over 1HP in theoretical terms but I was putting in (say) 4HP. The advantage came when the batteries charged up a bit as I could drop the motor revs to around 1500 but still put in a tolerable 10-15A.This was much quieter and was what I was hoping for in the first place.

Copper water pipe makes a good bus bar/cable if you have to run large currents for any distance.The local plumbing supplier had a special on annealed 1/2''at just the time i was installing the afore mentioned alternator.2 x 25m rolls slid into (separate!) 3/4" poly pipes made for some very useful underground cables. This would normally have been very expensive but at this time it worked out cheaper than cables and with less(!) voltage drop.

"Modified square wave" inverters are tolerable with most TV's, Computers and Fridges. Someone mentioned harmonics in an earlier post. I'm not sure whether my TV has a switchmode power supply but it coped OK. You could definitely see the harmonics as a pattern on the screen though, which disappeared when the genny was started.(Couldn't hear  the b****y TV then though! ) The computer (switchmode) also coped OK, fridge compressor ran noisily , but otherwise OK. Automatic washing m/c's have a habit of self destructing on square wave, as do pedestal fans (the cheaper ones sometimes lasted a whole hour!) Any induction motor has problems , some more than others.
Brushed motors work fine.

Around here, "modified square wave" inverters are pretty cheap second hand as most people are shelling out the extra for sine wave. I'd part with my old ones (350w and 1500w) for $100 each. I think the freight might be a problem though

Cheers,

Brian

G'Day all,
          At 3am this morning I was lying awake thinking about lister governors.How sad is that? No wonder my wife just shakes her head and walks away...
          Allow me to pontificate. This may not be correct and I'm certainly open to correction but there must be something in this.
         Imagine a lister with big holes around the governer weights.With the spring removed, reach into the (Stationary ) motor and move the governor weights outward to simulate increasing speed . What happens (Obviously is that the injector rack moves "in" to reduce the fuel. As there appears to be a sweet spot in the movement of the weights, this must correspond to a given rack position.We are fortunate(?) on our engines that we have miles of external linkage to play with. Would it be possible to vary the length of the linkage so that the weights are in their optimum position for the usual load.The spring would then be modified/adjusted to give the correct RPM.
        My thoughts(guesses on this were sparked by the fact that the Lister L(petrol) version was rated at anywhere between 450 and 650 RPM without changing the governor weights.I don't know if any of this is of any practical use but it's just my 2c worth(and of course we all know that 2c Australian is worth less than 2c US!

Cheers,

Brian

Bob g
       our equivalent to radio shack is selling an air speed meter for around $70 Australian (US $50?) If it looks OK and has the right range I'll buy one and lash it to some sort of telescopic inlet tube. Should prove interesting if nothing else.As if I don't have enough to do at weekends!

Cheers,

Brian