Tips n Trix A to Z

Ted has given his permission for visitors to this page to save or print it for their own personal use. Please do not repost it to another www site or mailing list without Ted's permission.

The following tips & tricks come from a vast experience of working in the field with minimal resources & may be applied to restoring old machinery or to the every-day running of your car. This tech stuff may just get someone out of a spot. Print off this page & file it where you can find it.

A Air filters, it only takes 8 oz of dirt to completely ruin a 6 cylinder diesel motor, doesn't matter how long or short the time taken to put it through. Some early air cleaners were completely inadequate to protect pump engines from dust kicked up by cattle around the drinking trough. VW oil bath filters were easily adapted to Southern Cross diesels, the more modern paper ex Holden filter is even more efficient.

B Belts, the best ever are the Poly Belt used on the modern car fan. Next is the ordinary Vee belt. The old Cotton/rubber flat belt changed tension with the weather and could slip after warming up and become a fire hazard in the unattended situation.

Bolts, Studs & the like when re-fitting the sump, cover or anything that has a number of studs through it put ALL the studs in finger-tight first then tighten every other one until you've got them all up tight

C Compression To check the piston clearance place 2 pieces of resin-cored solder on top of the piston over the gudgeon bush then re-fit the head, tighten to specks, (Lister head gasket consists of one heavy steel ring & 3 thin ones .002 thou (.05 mm) thick, fit the thin ones first into the recess in the head then the heavy one, a finger full of grease is the trick to hold them in place.) Turn the crank over one full turn, remove the head and measure the thickness of the pieces of solder, they should be between .050 -.052 thous of an inch, (1.28 - 1.32 mm) remove or add .002 shims according to the measurement you get, this is particularly important for multi-cylinder engines.

Cold starting a diesel, in cold weather, heat up the inlet manifold a bit with the Oxy. If it hasn't been run for a long time, remove the injector and put a couple of tea-spoons of oil into the cylinder.

D A Decoke consists of checking the injector, (under I below) removing the head, removing the valves, scraping any carbon deposits with especially ground hack-saw blades, a clean around the air fins, replace everything , and start it up (often hard to start after this because of bits of carbon getting under the valves) let it run a few minutes then recheck the valve clearances.

E Economy don't ever run a diesel engine loaded beyond its rated capacity, with black smoke emitting from the exhaust a 7 H.P. (5.2 kW) engine will produce 10 H.P. (7.46 kW) to the detriment of itself , fuel usage & the environment.

F Fly-wheel, on tapered shaft, to remove it loosen the big nut (one turn is enough) cut a piece of plate steel 1/2 inch (13 mm) thick, drill 3 holes in it to match the mounting holes already in the fly-wheel, now with 3 suitable bolts mount the plate over the end of the shaft and tighten as much as you dare. If it doesn't shift, give the plate a good thump with a heavy hammer (just once.) If that didn't shift it, tighten the bolts again then carefully heat the center of the wheel with the oxy, (not too much, shouldn't burn the paint.) If still no go, go and have a cup of tea, it'll pop off while your not watching it.

Re-Fitting the fly-wheel (or any tapered part to a tapered shaft) be sure that the shaft is cold, heat the wheel (not too much as to damage it and you need to be able to handle it) slip it on and spin on the nut just tight, re-tighten it after it has cooled.

Fitting a truck fly-wheel, put the bolts in a tin of diesel fuel before tightening them up, the fuel lubricates them on and then dries out, they will not come loose.

Fuel leaks Lister engines have the injection system under covers, be sure that there is no leaks, you cannot see it and the fuel finishes up in the oil, be very suspicious if the oil level seems to be rising.

G Governors fitted to save the engine from over-revving and to keep it steady under varying loads. Things to watch are pins and clips, be sure they are secure, if one of these drops out you can have a runaway engine.

Governor Vacuum operated fitted to a 4 cyl Toyota Landcruiser, after striping the engine down twice putting new rings etc in, my brother wrote from West Africa, it still blows blue smoke at idle, idles roughly and won't come back to idle properly. My Fax reads, Toyota problem ? Always tackle easiest things first. Does it have a vacuum governor ? If so, check the diaphragm, 1/ If it has a hole in it, it will tend to over-rev & not come back to idle quickly. The rough idling & the not dropping down to normal idle speed may be two different problems. 2/ If the rack shaft is worn or the breather hose is choked it could be drawing engine oil through the diaphragm, of course this will be much worse at idle. The book for the B, 2B & 3B engines suggests that the diaphragm should be replaced every 20,000 km. Yes it was the diaphragm, it had done over 300,000 km.

H Hit n Miss this type of governor was fitted to many early petrol/kero engines, consisted of a weight which bashed a lever causing it to lock under a plate on the cam-follower. Things to watch, the lift of the cam-follower must clear the catch-plate or you will have a runaway engine, not a pretty sight.

I The Injector is the first thing to check when out in the bush without test gear handy, take it out then turn it around and put it back on the pipe, crank the engine over a few times to check the sound and spray pattern, (don't put your hand in the spray, it can punch the fuel right through your skin.) If it doesn't sound right and produces a drop of fuel before the quirk sound then it's a "dribbler" carefully remove the nozzle without shifting any adjustments, the nozzle has a needle in it, grip the protruding end of the needle in a hand or battery electric drill, carefully give it a couple of spins pressing lightly onto the seat, (don't pull the needle out) re-fit the nozzle and try it again. If one or more holes in the nozzle are blocked (there should be 4 ) break a fine piece of wire from a wire brush, (Primus pricker may be fine enough) carefully poke the holes (no need to disassemble anything this time) try it again. Keep your hands away, hold a piece of paper or card in front of the nozzle to see if it is spraying evenly, fuel should be atomized not splattering tiny droplets, the quirk sound should be sharp (resembling a nail being pulled from a hard-board) no matter how slowly the engine is turned, if not, experiment with the adjustment, (mark the original position so you can go back to it) tighten it no more than 10 deg. At a time. Don't go too far it will overload the operating mechanism. If lots of fuel spills from the bleed-back connection then you need a new nozzle. Cleanliness is very important here so wrap the injector in a clean cloth and set it aside when you are finished.

Injector pumps Lister multi cylinder engines have a separate pump for each cylinder, if work is done on these pumps they will need to be adjusted relative to each other, (or one cyl will be working harder than the others) remove the exhaust manifold then feel the exhaust temperatures under load, adjust the governor rods until they feel the same.

J Jump starting Your new EFI car cannot be used to jump start your old Landcruiser it will blow the Black Box in the EFI car when the older electrics comes on line. However you may start your EFI car from the cruiser battery if you do not run the cruiser engine.

K Kerosene engines run on a retarded spark, they may be run continuously on petrol but the timing needs to be advanced to stop over-heating. ULP may be used for show purposes if a little fuel treatment is added to lubricate the valve faces, (I recommend P.M.800, or a good two stroke oil) not enough to cause smoke.

L Lubrication early Southern Cross air coolers relied entirely on condensation of oil vapors from the crank-case to lubricate the rocker gear, it's a good idea to splash a little oil around occasionally.

M Manifold, when working on a multi-cylinder engine with individual heads, bolt the manifolds on first (not too tight) then put the heads on as a unit. 1/ This lines up all the gasket faces. 2/ Allows you to put the hard to get at nuts on. Final tighten the manifold after.

Mud map drawn on the ground with a stick to be etched in ones memory, used extensively in the bush.

N Never No Never run a stationary engine without checking the oil etc. You run your car 10 min down to the shops, 25 min to work, takes a while to rack up a few hours, you check the oil etc every couple of weeks. A stationary engine runs 8 or 10 hours without supervision, you can drive your car from Brisbane to Rockhampton in that time, nearly Sydney to Melbourne.

O Diesel Oils used in the northern parts of Australia (where the ambient temperatures are generally higher) contain more detergent than those used in the south , if you buy an engine or vehicle from the south and you change it to series 3 oil it can become so full of carbon that it will not run off the dip-stick, cause damage to the engine bearings. Use a flushing oil first then keep changing the oil until it is clean. A drop of oil on a piece of blotting paper will show how black it is, make comparisons, one drop after 5 minutes, another at 20, another in an hour. Black is normal, how black is what we are looking for.

P Pulleys, it is always best to use a Puller to remove pulleys from shafts. I have seen the rotor of an electric motor moved along the shaft, driven against the end plate. And the oil pump of a Lister diesel damaged beyond repair. If in doubt use Taper-lock pulleys.

Q Quirk strange unexplainable things people do that don't make sense, see Injectors above.

R Runaway when the governor fails to control the engine speed and full acceleration occurs.

S Smoke there are three types of smoke produced by diesel engines. 1/ White, poor compression, maybe broken top ring, disappears as it warms up. 2/ Blue, oil burner, diesels run even better when they are burning oil. 3/ Black, overloaded, injector dribbling or partially blocked, if there is insufficient oxygen to burn all the fuel it will produce black smoke, overloading will cause an increase in fuel injected beyond what is use able.

Dribbling begins to burn before injection robbing the oxygen finally the carbon produced blocks one of the holes then all the fuel is injected from 3 holes while 1/4 of the oxygen gets no fuel, the resultant loss of power causes the governor to increase the fuel injected. Vicious circle. See Injectors above.

Speed, Determining the engine speed can be easy depending what it is driving. i.e. if it is driving an alternator, set your multi meter to AC and plug it in to the power-point. Adjust the governor until it reads 240 volts, then the engine should be running at the right revs. Warning !!! some Welding plants will over rev at startup then settle to the correct revs, so connect sensitive equipment up after it is running. If the engine is driving a deep well pump with a pump-jack under a windmill then the desired speed is 36 up strokes per min. Faster than that and the shock loading on all the gear is too great (pump has no load on the down stroke then suddenly full load on up stroke.) Slower and it will take more hours to fill the tank (cost more fuel to fill the tank.) Say the engines best torque is at 1800 RPM the pulley is on the cam shaft 900 RPM the pulley is 5 inch dia. Driving a 15 inch pulley on the pump-jack 300 RPM the drive gear has 12 teeth driving a 100 tooth gear 36 RPM the pump rods will be lifting 36 times per min. just count them off over one minute. Adjust the governor until it is right.

T Tappet clearances if the tappet is worn then a feeler gauge will not give a true reading. Use the thread pitch, i.e. a 3/8 UNF thread is 24 TPI 1000 divide by 24 = .0416" divide by 6 = .0069" Tighten down the adjuster until there is no clearance, (check by spinning the push-rod) back off 2 flats of the lock nut and you have between .013 & .014" clearance. (a 1 mm pitch divided 6 = .16 mm a 1.25 mm pitch / 6 = .2 mm)

Timing re-timing a kero engine to run on petrol can have some problems, 1/ no suitable timing marks, find TDC, usually the keyway in the crank-shaft is cut at TDC, or remove the spark plug and find TDC with a piece of wire, mark the fly-wheel with chalk, measure the circumference of the fly-wheel then divide that by 36 that will give you 10 degrees advance.

This method can be used in other circumstances too. 2/ not enough adjustment available, remove the magneto cog and make a stepped key allowing the shaft to be moved forward a few degrees.

Timing a Diesel engine, as there is only .050" (1.28 mm) clearance between the piston & the head it is easy enough to release a valve to find TDC. (If it is not marked on the fly-wheel) Then check the valve overlap (Inlet valve begins to open just before the exhaust valve seats) this occurs right on TDC. If not then there is something wrong, worn gears or bad key-way. One tooth out of plumb would be too much and a valve would clash with the piston. Then see that the injector lines up (Single pumps have a timing mark in a small window which should correspond with the INJ mark on the fly-wheel) some adjustment is provided by removing shims from under the pump, but be careful if the pump plunger goes too high it will break the pumping element. Pumps that do not have a window, remove number one pipe, wipe out any fuel with a CLEAN cloth, turn the engine over slowly until you see (it may help if these eyes are less than 50 years old) fuel move in that conical hole. You may have to go back and try this several times to determine exactly where the injection point is.

Tappet clearances if the tappet is worn then a feeler gauge will not give a true reading. Use the thread pitch, i.e. a 3/8 UNF thread is 24 TPI 1000 divide by 24 = .0416" divide by 6 = .0069" Tighten down the adjuster until there is no clearance, (check by spinning the push-rod) back off 2 flats of the lock nut and you have between .013 & .014" clearance. (a 1 mm pitch divided 6 = .16 mm a 1.25 mm pitch / 6 = .2 mm)

U Unless you know better leave it alone, if it's not broke don't fix it. If it is broke Don't be afraid to give it a go, ask plenty of questions.

V Ventilation, the Lister Lighting engine hand-book supplied with every new set has in bold print on the very first page (the last place some farmers look) instructions on how to provide proper ventilation for the new engine housed in a tin shed. There should be at least a 2 foot square opening directly in-front of the air outlet from the engine, another one opposite this on the other side of the shed, cover these with chicken wire to keep the chooks out.

W Water cooled engines were often hooked up to a tank (read 44 gallon 205 lt drum) with thermo-syphon, when they boil the water soon gets below the outlet stopping the thermo-syphon then a cook-up occurs. Southern Cross did devise a pump, fan & radiator for their water cooled generating set.

X Expect the worst but look for the cheapest option first.

Y You know that prevention is far better than cure, Service & Maintenance in the workshop is far better than repairing break-downs on the side of the road.

ZZZZZ Sorry, time to call it a day. Ted Lee