Hi Altonx, do you have the maintenance manual? If not, it is available for free download here https://www.winget.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/PETTER-A-RANGE-WORKSHOP-MANUAL.pdf

The manual recommends heating the glow plugs for 20 seconds. If you do try starting on just one cylinder with the other decompressed please check that the decompressors are correctly adjusted or you may crash the piston into a valve.

How old is the battery? Perhaps it does not have enough voltage or cranking amps for this application. Check the electrical system, battery terminals, solenoid connections and any earthing wires. Check the glow plugs are actually getting hot.

Let us know how you get on.

Bob

Hi Peter and welcome. My assessment of the problem you have is that you have excess compression, the fuel air mixture is igniting too soon and causing the engine to bounce backward rather than passing top dead center. The most obvious cause for this would be that someone has set the bump clearance too small (clearance between top of piston and cylinder head) however since you have recently seen it start and run properly this is unlikely. The other way to achieve an increase in the compression ratio is to pour oil or fuel into the cylinder, I suspect that you have a dribling fuel injector and unburned liquid diesel sitting on top of the piston causing excessive compression. If a tiny amount of dirt got into the fuel injector line when you did the fuel filter it could have caused the fuel injector pintle to stick partly open. Pull out the fuel injector and clean the injector nozzle, then try it again.
Let us know how you go.

Bob

Heat, shock, penetrating oil and persistence will win in the end. Drilling really is the very last resort, difficult to do and likely to damage the shaft or flywheel. Butch (38 ac) swears by applying a significant outward pressure to the gib key while beating the flywheel in the opposite direction with a very very large hammer, I trust his experience and knowledge.
Good luck.

Bob

Yes cam lobes can be hardened. They are held on the shaft with taper pins and can be removed. Heat them up until they glow red and then quench them, to temper them warm them up till they just start to turn blue and let them cool slowly. How successful this will be depends on the quality of the steel, if they are high carbon steel this will work well, if they are closer to mild steel and have been case hardened it won`t do much. Original Lister parts were all high carbon steel, I suspect some of the Indian Listeroid parts are of much lower quality.
Have a look on the internet for stationary engine parts. There are very good suppliers in the UK, USA and here in Australia. Most of these parts are made in India and should fit your engine. I have found that it is often necessary to play about with gasket thicknesses to achieve the correct tolerances/clearances/end float & etc.
Keep us up to date with how you get on.

Bob

Hi Eric, I`m very interested to see your design for a generator shed. I need to build one to house two generators, one is an original Lister CS 6/1 with an ST head, this can be completely enclosed for noise reduction with just the cooling hopper outside. The other is a Petter 3 phase generator, it is air cooled and cannot be completely enclosed, I have been trying to work out how to sound deaden an enclosure with louvred doors.
Looking forward to watching your progress, will you be using an in ground exhaust system?

Bob

+1 Cobbadog, what a beauty! I don`t mind the new fuel tank, it would look better with an original tank but I doubt anyone could supply one. So the best option is for something functional but clearly not original.
I hope the visitors to your festival appreciate how much work, money, talent and effort went into restoring your engine, it is a credit to you, your family and your community. Well done VP

Bob

Hi Richard, welcome to the forum. You don`t say what part of the world you are in so it is difficult to advise you on spare parts suppliers.
I own both Lister and Petter diesel generators and am very happy with the performance. I would recommend you try to find a water cooled model if you can, they are much quieter and can be installed in a sound proof enclosure with just the radiator or a cooling hopper outside, a further option is to use the heat from the water jacket to heat a hot water cylinder via a heat exchanger, free hot water is a blessing.
Exhaust noise can be reduced with readily available mufflers or eliminated by digging an inground exhaust system, depending on the space you have available.
Diesel engines need to be loaded quite heavily to prevent the cylinders becoming glazed. The AVA2 will peak at around 12 HP and would run a generator giving out around 7KVA, if you are only going to be using 5KVA get a 2 bar electric heater and use that extra load to occasionally fully load the genset.
I have recently bought a Petter 3 phase genset. It is air cooled and I will be trying to build it a sound deadening enclosure with louvred doors to three sides. I`ll post some pictures as I go.
good luck, let us know how you go.

Bob