@oldgoat
thanks for the link, my initial idea was to make a genset out of "scrap" parts that are easily and cheaply available and the make a building manual, so anyone with basic skills could build one cheaply without falling in the  same pitfalls that I am already falling into. I can see the idea is not ideal and mayby slightly waste of effort - anyhow I have booked a couple of hours with a professional electro-guy and maybe he can guide me to the right way to do it or convince me to buy an off the shelf generator head.
I am still a bit puzzled as what parts make a off the shell generator do the job, to my understanding those are also based on asynchronous gennys - is that the avr or ..?? Have other people taken this route and succeeded?

Hi Dayle. Yes. For sure. I’d just like the flywheels really so we’ll see

I bid $300 a while back on a nice complete 3/1 hadn’t been run for a few years (being sold by the widow of a collector of course) and it went for $1500. Jeez

I guess we’ll see lol. Cheers

Hey Daryl whereabouts are you?

I have the entire bottom end of a 3/1 sitting in a paddock here.  I don't see why the cam gear would have any more than superficial rust on it.  I would imagine it's the same as a 5/6/1 - maybe worth looking at?

Get back to me if you like?

Cheers, Mike

Check out the link

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=3076626868&member_hash=a3a7566550fad4bdc4224f94f4401662016de7c29f5cc5555c&tm=email&et=46&mt=3CD2EA5F-6EC8-4299-AE88-E417DDE97A03

I have put in a bid and will chase these along.  I suspect they're worth having just for the couple of pairs of SOM flywheels . . .

I'd be interested in any observations, thanks

No problems at all about missing the maggy. I really dont think there is much wrong with the engine other than needing a good long run varying the revs and puttinnnnnnng it under load form time to time. I sometimes grab a length of timber and while the engine is rrrrunning I put it un der the flywheel and lift it slightly. This loads up the engine and brings the governor into play so does 2 jobs at once.
These Lister engines were well and truly over designed with quality thrown in at the same time. Parts that fail have done so due to lack or no maintenance or they have really been worked very long and hard.
When you go back, go armed with plenty of good clean, fresh fuel, a spare plug, feeler gauges, points file, some carby cleaner to clean up the inside of the maggy where the popints are as sometimes there is a lot of oil there. Try a good squirt of oil down the plug hole and start it up and see what happens.