Many years ago my father brought this engine,a 1917 1.5hp tank cooled Lister H type.It was directly coupled to a water pump at a pumping station where it worked all its life.He allways knew it had led a hard working life at this AWA pumping station.Anyway last week he decided to get the engine out the back of the shed for a run as it must be at least 20 years since it was last run.I recut the valve seats and ground them in as the engine had very little compression and would not even fire let alone run.The Bosch “flick mag” still worked a treat without being touched even after all those years !!.I replaced the exhaust silencer and the two perished rubber hoses for the cooling tank and the engine now starts very easily and runs beautifully once more.My father says thats the best the engine has ever started since he brought it :):):).He has been cleaning the engine down over the past couple of days and wanted me to get the flywheels of for better access.One came of easily using the correct drift tool but the other……….well its taken me best part of two days to get that flywheel key out by drilling,welding,hammering,punching etc !!!!!.This flywheel and key had been fitted incorrectly whilst the engine was still in service hence all the trouble i had in its removal.Has anyone had similar troubles getting keys out ?????
Back in the day when I dabbled with a few stationary engines , I usually tried to apply as much heat (carefully) as I dare , then knock the flywheel “on a bit further” and use a quality key drift to then remove the key.
Not much use if the flywheel has been incorrectly fitted , in that it has been driven fully on , and the key then fitted , it’s then as you say………drilling etc etc.
The flywheel key was actually prodruding from the inside face of the flywheel hub.The key had been hammered in until it got to the end of the keyway in the crankshaft.The keyway on the crankshaft then curved up at the end (it was just how it was machined at the Lister factory).Whoever refitted this key then kept on hammering until the end of it followed the curved path of the keyway,pinching it REALLY tight at this end.How the cast iron flywheel hub never cracked i dont know with the amount of force that must of been on it !!.To make matters worse i never had any really long drill bits so had to make them longer by welding a longer shank on them until they were approx 12″ long.I was very pleased though when the key finally came out :).
That i did John :).I just hope he dont decide to dig any more “sleepers” out from the back of the shed……i dont really want to get involved in removing any more stubborn keys again for a little while 🙂
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