Lister Engines > Original Lister Cs Engines

Important safety reminder, please point at me and laugh.

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sb118:
Well i've finished the wallpadding in the shed to kill a lot of the noise from running the engine, i thought i'd give it a spin (just an excuse to play really, only bolted down to some pieces of 2x4 and no exhaust system fitted).

Oops.

To put it mildly, oops.

In fact i'll spell it out, i'm a total coughing idiot.

You start this engine by cranking a ratcheted handle, it will only pull the engine in one direction, and once the engine picks up speed the driveshaft runs faster than the handle and the ratchet just "freewheels" so you can pull the handle off for safety.

See that last word there? "Safety", i've just learned that it doesn't ALWAYS work that way, sometimes the handle won't slide off the drive shaft.... like i said, oops.

I crank, drop exhaust valve to fire engine, engine fails to start, repeat 10 times. One last time, then i'll sack it until i can put the engine on a few blocks to get it to a more accesable height.

Wish i'd waited. Really wish i'd waited. Really really .....  you get the idea.

Ok, i crank the engine, drop exhuast valve, engine coughs into life, i pull the starting handle off. Sorry, i try to pull of the starting handle, but don't. Either too slow, or it's got a bit of rough rust somewhere along the shaft which is catching.

The handle continues to spin as the engine reaches operating speed. Of one thousand, eight hundred revolutions per minute. And my leg is in the way. My shin to be exact. Oops.

On with the pics, wiefy took most of them after we'd packed my shin with packs of frozen chips and peas. (and she'd stopped laughing at me, i sound quite pathetic when i'm in pain)








Can you spot the slight difference between the legs?

I may be waiting until the engine is bolted to a solid concrete base before i start it again.

We have seen the enemy!



Worked out the problem, the cover for the starter has had a knock at some point and it's too close to the ratchet mechanism, forcing the pin to stay in the slot in the driveshaft. Another excuse to play with the lump hammer :D REVENGE! :D

Tom:
Ouch! I'll share a similar, but not as disastrous. oops I made if you promise not to laugh. Being a new lister user I tried to jerk the crank handle off the shaft as soon as it fired. Well if you don't slide the handle straight off the shaft it will hang. So there I am with the nice heavy duty cast iron crank handle cocked on the end of the shaft spinning at 650 RPM. The way the engine was located I had to lean across the flywheel to flip the fuel off praying the handle does not fly off and hit me. Now I am sure to firmly hold the crank after it fires and carefully slide it straight off the shaft.

GuyFawkes:
Guy's there's a 20 second video on my site (no sound) of me doing it properly, eg the way I was taught, eg THE ONLY WAY YOU EVER START A STATIONARY ENGINE.

a/ do ususal visual checks, fuel on etc
b/ decompressor engaged
c/ crank engine briskly THREE turns
d/ SLIDE HANDLE OFF SHAFT
e/ dis-engage decompressor

if it don't start on 3 turns you have issues, if required repeat.

don't matter what set up or design you have, sooner or later it will hang up, better it does that BEFORE you disengage the decompressor

sb118, consider yourself extremely lucky, could have been FAR worse.

Andre Blanchard:
Added some steps.:)

a/ do ususal visual checks, fuel on etc
b/ decompressor engaged
 b.2/ put a few drops of oil on the engine shaft
 b.4/ rotate the crank backward to make sure the ratchet is working
c/ crank engine briskly THREE turns
d/ SLIDE HANDLE OFF SHAFT
e/ dis-engage decompressor


First thing I would do is put a block of maple in the lathe to fix that handle.
___________
Andre' B.

trigzy:
Keeping in mind the only engine I have ever hand started is a Fairbanks-Morse Railroad speeder car motor, I REALLY like the idea of taking the handle of the crank before letting the compression go.....  I dont see the need to carry the engine through the compression stroke.

Sorry to hear about your injury....

Steve

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