Every now and again we will come across an engine that is truly beyond saving. This doesn’t always mean that the engine is totally useless and only fit for the scrap yard. Often it means that major components are beyond repair or missing altogether, but that engine can be a useful source of spare parts. Last year I came across a Lister D which was way beyond repair and only had a few useable spares, despite largely been complete.
The engine in question appeared in the Cheffins Vintage Machinery Sale at Ely in April. It came in a job lot with another complete and somewhat better D type. I was unable to attend the sale in person as I was busy acting as an usher at a friends wedding on the day, so instead I spent an hour before the wedding watching the auction live online and placed my bids over the internet. I had bought a couple of engines early in the sale and when the pair of D types were going cheap I put a bid in on them as I had space on the trailer.
Once collected & home it quickly became apparent just how rough the D type in question was. Sadly I didn’t think at the time to get any pictures of the complete engine, but I did begin to capture some of the issues on camera as the strip down began. Instantly recognisable was the state of the fuel tank, tank straps & carburettor.
I think the fuel tank would have had a small leak.
The tank straps were just as badly corroded as the fuel tank.
The fuel tank was not so much full of holes, but rather more a case of the holes were bigger than the area of metal which remained. The tank straps were a little better, but still well beyond use. The carburettor was even worse, with the float bowl appearing to have melted.
What remained of the float bowl.
Other major issues found upon stripping were that the magneto was locked solid. The bakelite cap was already damaged and it ended up falling apart as I tried to get it off. Once inside the mag the coil was removed, to get the coil out all four retaining bolts sheered off! Under the coil was just a solid mess of rust and debris. Despite great efforts to free the armature off, nothing within the magneto would move. All that was really salvageable were the points & the cam.
It wasn’t just the magneto that was seized solid, the piston was well and truly stuck. Once the cylinder head was removed it became apparent why the engine was stuck. The cylinder was heavily pitted and there was a large crack running up it. Once the debris on top of the piston was removed things got even worse. The cylinder came with a rather large hole in the side. Had the engine turned over, I think there would be a severe lack of compression. Given the state of the cylinder, it was decided that the engine truly was beyond saving so it was fully stripped down with several parts managing to be saved and re-used on other engines. Parts saved included the pulley wheel, inlet valve, rocker shaft, magneto chain sprocket, hopper top casting, oil filler neck, cylinder head nuts, crankcase door cover & brass spec plate and the main carburettor. Despite the float chamber having appeared to melt, the rest of the carb was in surprisingly good condition!
Stripping the remaining bottom end of the engine provided one last nasty surprise. The con rod was fount to be just a little out of shape.
I have come across some very rough engines in the past, but I don’t think I have ever found one that was just quite as beyond repair as this one. Hopefully its a long time before I see another that is quite as bad as this one.
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Country: GB