Old two cylinder generator value.

[Erie Fred]

Some on here could boil a kettle on their heads - thinking too hard, if you ask me.

You don't say....

 

[GRW]

4 wires ... how many you want?
Neutral L1 L2 L3 ,4 wires
PE isn't even required most of the times with a power generator.
Because they are practically ground insulated.
If you connect the neutral to the ground now you need PE , because voltage can go across a phase and ground passing through you

A 4-wire wound ALTERNATOR, not output. You've got the wrong end of the stick.

This means its a "dedicated winding" & as such can only be 3ph configured (where you'd want 1ph for the domestic, & where pulling off just 1ph on a 6kva 3ph is not viable).

6-wire & 12-wire alternators provide the facility to re-arrange the coils from Series-Star to Series-Delta. Even this method means a 33% debate on the 3ph rating, but no pH imbalance or ph/coil overload issues.

 

[sako243]

Spot on. I'd love to find an affordable good one (1ph, most are 3ph and only 4-wire so not reconfigurable) for my folks place. Being able to fire up a solid lump like that, with practical certainty that it'd run as long as you needed it to without issue, economically - well worth providing one with some house room in an outbuilding.

@8ob brought down a gennie his mate had sold to me. Big enough to run our house off one of its phases... Wasn't that dear but mine does come in at over a tonne I think. Dad had one as well which sounds amazing being an air cooled Deutz but as it was on wheels and he couldn't handle the weight of mine to move it around.

 

[GRW]

@8ob brought down a gennie his mate had sold to me. Big enough to run our house off one of its phases... Wasn't that dear but mine does come in at over a tonne I think. Dad had one as well which sounds amazing being an air cooled Deutz but as it was on wheels and he couldn't handle the weight of mine to move it around.

The 1500rpm heavy old Deutz oil & air-cooled Deutz engines are solid, tough bits of kit. I recall where I worked decades back we got to see the occasional 6-pot Deutz - a build quality that made you feel one would run forever. I think Deutz parts might make you wince more than Lister bits though.

There's a firm called Sleeman & Hawken in Devon who've been going for donkeys years who are good source of new Lister (& other marques) parts - they used to have an impressive inventory of Lister & Petter engine parts for obsolete engines (oversize piston kits, valves, cranks, fuel pumps etc etc).

As for "off one of its phases" - the risk there is phase imbalance and possible damage to windings. Running over 30% phase imbalance is not advised by alternator mfrs.... & the majority of sets only voltage sense on L1, so a large ph imbalance has a tendency to adversely affect ph voltages.
As prev post though - unless it's a very old set, there's the possibility of reconfiguring the alternator to 1ph only (if required)

 

[Farside]

I don't think it happens with the twin cylinder one's but the single cylinder will sometimes kick back when starting and run backwards. That means the crank handle is being driven at 1500rpm until it flies off the shaft. Time to run when it happens.

They've got a single-tooth ratchet that prevents that, but not uncommon for that tooth to be grimed in place and any ratchet action is non-functional.

 

[Robotstar5]

They've got a single-tooth ratchet that prevents that, but not uncommon for that tooth to be grimed in place and any ratchet action is non-functional.

And as with most old British stuff it can be serviced, you pull out the split pin so the drive pawl & spring can be removed for cleaning & oiling

 

[Bornfree]

They've got a single-tooth ratchet that prevents that, but not uncommon for that tooth to be grimed in place and any ratchet action is non-functional.

If the engine starts backwards that ratchet is being driven

 

[sardine]

One of those with a 3000rpm generator is audible from most planets in our universe.

 

[Farside]

If the engine starts backwards that ratchet is being driven

You're right!

 

[GRW]

They've got a single-tooth ratchet that prevents that, but not uncommon for that tooth to be grimed in place and any ratchet action is non-functional.

Lister introduced an "anti-kickback starting mechanism" for the hand start - an option to meet CE Certification for sale/use in the EU...... but that was on the T Series motors and I think sometime after Yr 2000.

Like many, I tried to keep my thumb with my fingers,not wrapped around the handle when swinging these things over by hand. On multi's it was better to drop the decompression levers over 1-cyl at a time - get it to start firing on 1-cyl, and it was less abrupt & gave you a fraction more time to get the handle & yourself clear, then drop over the levers on the other cylinders.

 

[Trevorleach]

We have a lister twin on a work boat, it spins a good sized prop and certainly motors along nicely, no one has any idea how old it is.

 

[GRW]

We have a lister twin on a work boat, it spins a good sized prop and certainly motors along nicely, no one has any idea how old it is.

I've been told the smaller S & T Series (1, 2 & 3 cyl) engines were popular for narrowboats, while slightly bigger boats might go for the H Series (HA & the larger HR in 2, 3, 4 & 6 cyl) another cracking heavy strong engine.

They changed the arrangement of the serial numbers a couple of times, but for a long time you'd have a short series of numbers, then the engine type in the centre, followed by a build type code.
E.g. 23842HR3A008
With this serial layout, you added 50 to the first 2 numbers to get the year of Mfr, the centre letters gave you the model, & the letter following the no. of cyls (so the example would be a 1973 built model HR3, 3-cyl, about 30hp @ 1500rpm, while A008 would be a Genset build type if I recall correctly).