Petter A1 Stationary engine.

[Robotstar5]

As I've taken lots of photo's as I've gone along I thought I'd do a thread about it.

July 2018 - after about 12 months of looking for one at the right price and travelling distance, I found one

This is how it arrived from Leicestershire...

Unloaded onto a temporary trolley so I could have a good look round it...

I contacted the Petter historian with the serial No., but he did not have records for the engine as it was built for Petter by J&H McLaren of Leeds...

I managed to date it to 1965 by a stamp found in the flywheel cover...

The original red primer was very well applied, but the next coat of Green could be scraped off with a fingernail...

 

[Robotstar5]

First job was to remove the flywheel which is retained by a Gibb key, I saw an extractor for the Lister D so made a similar one from a square of 10mm plate...

Seems to be working...

The Gibb key, which a previous owner seemed to attacked with an angry grinder for some reason

Along side a new key for which I will have to learn the art of Gibb key fitting...

 

[Robotstar5]

Took the magneto cover off...

and happened to have a tube of Autosol so wondered how it would come up...

The governor spring was missing, but one of the Facebook groups came to the rescue...

The cylinder head had a home made blanking plug in the timing hole...

After asking what the hole was for on an SE forum, one of the members had a few spares and sent me one...

Bit of a clean up and it looks much better now...

Most of the gaskets came off in bits...

After asking for help identifying the material on this forum, @cumbriasteve kindly sent me some

So I could make some replacements...

 

[Robotstar5]

The strip down and clean up begins...

The Ally gear cover was quite bad so got a coat of etch primer...

Followed by normal primer...

I know later Petter engines used a lighter than normal green so thought I would try some...

I think if I do it all this colour I'm going to have to issue sunglasses to spectators

Before work could commence this morning I had to pry the workshop door open as it had swelled, a bit of woodwork before I could continue...

I lost my nerve and went for standard Mid-Brunswick green...

Cylinder was cleaned up and got a couple of coats of black Barbecue paint...

 

[Robotstar5]

The flywheel housing/fan cowl had suffered some damage over the years...

So I went to see an "old school" tin basher I knew from my days at Rover who has a car repair shop, I think he did a decent job and even commented "it was nice to work on a decent thickness of metal for a change"

Painted and ready to fit...

Head cooling cowl cleaned and primed...

Even painted inside although it will mostly never be seen...

Some of the bolt-on parts painted, the tank isn't a different shade, just the way the sunlight caught it...

The tank...

 

[bourbon]

Looking good there. Please continue with the photo's

 

[Robotstar5]

Woodwork on a welding forum????

Nice bit of Ash cut up ready...

Glued and held together with temporary screws followed by a couple of coats of Osmo hard wax oil...

Components to build the axles...

Axles jigged ready for welding...

Axles welded...

Painted and bolted to the trolley...

Axle ends chamfered using the tool recommended in another thread...

Trolley standing on it's own wheels...

Engine mounting bars drilled ready for fitting...

 

[Robotstar5]

Flywheel after a lot of wire brushing...

Even found the original timing mark on the rim...

It took ages to paint all the fins before realising it will never be seen as it has a cover over it...

Drive pulley cleaned up...

My old pistol cleaning kit came in handy for cleaning out the retaining hole...

A milestone!, it's now a Petter (again) although it's been 40+ years since I last applied a wet slide transfer...

 

[Robotstar5]

When I got the engine, the only way to stop it was by grounding a bit of wire sticking out of the magneto cover...

Wiring extended and sleeved...

A bit of CAD (cardboard aided design) and I made a push button mounting plate...

Which fitted discretely under the magneto...

I wanted to fit an air cleaner, but the origuinal spec Burgess oil bath filters always seem to sell for silly money as they are fairly rare so I went for a cheapo pit bike filter in garish metalflake finish...

Looks a lot better after a repaint...

...and of course a Burgess filter came up at the right price afterwards so I bought it and will restore it this winter.

After a wanted post on this forum for help extending the sump drain...

@doubleboost came to the rescue screenshot from his SNNC as I forgot to take a photo when it arrived...

Primed and fitted...

 

[Wallace]

Looks really good.

 

[Kayos]

Looks great

 

[Wozzaaah]

Fantastic work.

 

[Gragson]

I did similar, masking inner of the flywheel then gently sandblasting fins, gave it a nice clear coat, baked it on for a bit, then realised the blower cover (which I had painted inside and out) would cover the whole lot. The trolley looks lovely. Would love to have a restore job on one of these, do they come up for sale much?

 

[Robotstar5]

I did similar, masking inner of the flywheel then gently sandblasting fins, gave it a nice clear coat, baked it on for a bit, then realised the blower cover (which I had painted inside and out) would cover the whole lot. The trolley looks lovely. Would love to have a restore job on one of these, do they come up for sale much?

Petter A1's and Lister D's are always coming up for sale on the various SE groups, Ebay etc. so plenty out there

 

[DAPPH]

I've repaired / rebuilt many a Petter & Lister …. nice simple engineering . Every time I did a full strip & rebuild I used to stamp the post code of our plant hire business in the sump . ( PE2 9AW ).

T' was amazing how many that were stolen & claimed on the insurance were re-painted in a different colour without a trace of the original colours came back to me for repair over the years . Even more interesting was who the latest owners were . Vic the major partner had kept the plant book up to date for 15 or more years , whenever a bit of stolen gear with our post code inside it came in for repair he'd pencil in who th new owner was .

Did you run the engine before you stripped it ?
Did you do a wet & dry compression test on it as well , if so what were the figures in PSI ( if you kept a note of them ) ?

 

[Robotstar5]

I've repaired / rebuilt many a Petter & Lister …. nice simple engineering . Every time I did a full strip & rebuild I used to stamp the post code of our plant hire business in the sump . ( PE2 9AW ).

T' was amazing how many that were stolen & claimed on the insurance were re-painted in a different colour without a trace of the original colours came back to me for repair over the years . Even more interesting was who the latest owners were . Vic the major partner had kept the plant book up to date for 15 or more years , whenever a bit of stolen gear with our post code inside it came in for repair he'd pencil in who th new owner was .

Did you run the engine before you stripped it ? Yes
Did you do a wet & dry compression test on it as well , if so what were the figures in PSI ( if you kept a note of them ) ? No

I don't suppose you still have access to the book to see if my serial No. is in it?

 

[the snooper]

As I've taken lots of photo's as I've gone along I thought I'd do a thread about it.

July 2018 - after about 12 months of looking for one at the right price and travelling distance, I found one

This is how it arrived from Leicestershire...

View attachment 177878

Unloaded onto a temporary trolley so I could have a good look round it...

View attachment 177879

View attachment 177880

I contacted the Petter historian with the serial No., but he did not have records for the engine as it was built for Petter by J&H McLaren of Leeds...

View attachment 177882

I managed to date it to 1965 by a stamp found in the flywheel cover...

View attachment 177883

The original red primer was very well applied, but the next coat of Green could be scraped off with a fingernail...

View attachment 177881

I advertised one on here free last year, no takers so I scrapped it

 

[Morrisman]

Friend of mine is selling a Lister, £250.

I’d quite like one myself, but it seems a bit pricey for a little novelty that will probably just sit in the shed forever.

 

[Robotstar5]

Friend of mine is selling a Lister, £250.

I’d quite like one myself, but it seems a bit pricey for a little novelty that will probably just sit in the shed forever.

View attachment 177987

Don't know how long that trolley will last the way the axles are bending!, the engine will bounce a lot mounted on pneumatic tyres too.

 

[dobbslc]

Looks like it's designed in negative camber for fast cornering!