Lister CS Electric Start Conversion Kits

Electric start conversion for a Lister CS engine.

Information and advice for fitting.

Stationary Engine Parts Ltd have been working closely with our Indian associates Anand Enterprise and an independent engineering design consultant to develop a reliable electric start solution for the Lister CS and Listeroid engines.

The result is a strong, well built 12 volt electric start system which is totally independent of the 240 volt alternator fitted to the engine unlike the original Start-O-Matic sets. This has the added benefit of making electric start available to non genuine Lister Start-O-Matic engine owners and genuine Lister engine owners without the Start-O-Matic setup fitted to their engine.

We have carried out rigorous testing of the new components and are pleased to report superb results. The starter motor used is strong enough to turn over single cylinder engines under compression and manages a twin cylinder when decompressed with little extra effort.

The kit of parts required to equip an engine with electric starting will depend upon the engine configuration and manufacturer which will be explained in greater detail shortly. The following list however is all parts which are available and may be required.

12 Volt Starter motor with solenoid.
Adjustable Starter motor mounting bracket (available as either standard left hand or special right hand mounting)
Flywheel ring gear.
Flywheel/s with taper lock bush fitting.
12V automotive style alternator.
Alternator drive belt.
Alternator pulley.
Wiring harness.
Control panel (including ammeter, light and key switch)
Crankshaft with counter balance weights (CBW).
Taper roller bearings (TRB's) & TRB housings.
 

To understand exactly which parts will be required for your engine type further explanation is required of the different engine balancing configurations. Firstly it must be understood that the electric start kit requires a special flywheel to be fitted to at least one side of the engine, this flywheel carries the ring gear and meshes with the pinion of the starter motor.

This new type flywheel has been purposely designed to accept a large 20” ring gear and be suitable for as many engine types as possible. The diameter of the flywheel is 20” slightly smaller in diameter than the original Lister CS type but thicker in cross section and heavier. The diameter has been reduced to make this flywheel suitable for all engine speeds up to 1000RPM and does not have a balance weight cast into it, this is to cater for the Indian engine variants.

Please read the following sections for each of the engine configurations and apply which explanation suits your engine best.

Old Style Genuine Lister engine with spoked or SOM style flywheels.

This type of CS engine relied upon the balancing for the engine being incorporated into the flywheel. The spoked type of flywheels had an extra lump cast into them which was 180 degrees offset from the crank pin. Look at the picture to the right; you can see in the bottom left corner the flywheel has an extra lump of material cast into the flywheel. This weight is designed to counter balance the weight of the crank pin, con rod, big & little end bearings, Piston and gudgeon pin etc to help smooth out the engine when running.

For those with the Start-O-Matic style of flywheels thinking that yours do not have an extra weight cast into them a clever method was employed to achieve the same effect but by basically reversing the principle. Instead of adding a weight 180 degrees from the crank pin some of the flywheels weight was removed from the same side as the crankpin. Look at the second picture to the right and you will see the flywheel has three holes in it. The two kidney shaped holes cancel each other out and are there purely to provide a handy place to hold the flywheel when mounting it to the engine, for our purposes we can ignore these for now, but looking at the small round hole you can see that because this is in the same position as the crankpin (assuming the engine is in bottom dead centre) it will have the same effect as the method above but has achieved it in a reverse manner.

From this we can deduce that fitting either a single or a pair of new style TLB plain flywheels to the engine is going to alter the engine's balancing and cause problems. There are several solutions to the problem.

1, If you are happy to replace just the one flywheel on the engine to the new TLB type with ring gear then this new flywheel could be mechanically balanced by adding weight in the required area to simulate the spoked type of flywheel method first mentioned. This could be achieved by bolting a weight onto the flywheel or if you have machining facilities a neater solution may be to copy the SOM type mentioned secondly.

2, The second option is to replace both of the flywheels so that the engine looks matched and even but still balance them by adding or removing material to compensate for the weight of the crankpin, piston and con rod etc as explained above.

New Style Indian Lister copy with spoked flywheels and old style crankshaft.

If your engine falls into this category then basically you have the same options as for the previous engine type unless you are really lucky. It may well be worth considering what type of crankshaft main bearings and carriers you have fitted to your engine though before ordering any parts. If you are lucky enough to have taper roller bearings with differing sized bearing carriers already fitted to the engine then you have the option to replace the crankshaft with a counter balanced type and you need not order the bearings and housings as the ones fitted should be suitable for the new crankshaft. If you have the old style bush bearings however you are no better off.

New Style Indian Lister copy with plain flywheels and a balanced crankshaft.

If your engine falls into this category you’re laughing as the job is a lot easier and cheaper to complete. You may well find that if you have 20” flywheels fitted to your engine that your existing flywheel could be drilled and tapped with threads to accept the ring gear meaning you do not need to buy any flywheels at all.

If you do not wish to modify your existing flywheel you could fit either a single or a pair of the new flywheels making the whole affair nothing more than a simple bolting on exercise.

Important points to note.

Stationary Engine Parts Ltd cannot guarantee the exact suitability of the items available for all engine types. India currently has many engine assemblers producing engines with very subtle differences. All development work has been carried out with genuine Lister and our own Paramount / Powerline brands and as such we claim compatibility to these brands only. We will gladly assist any engine owners with other brand engines and supply all sizes and required specifications to help asses the compatibility where possible but cannot be held responsible for incompatible parts with other brands of engines.

How do I order the parts required?

Once you have worked out what parts that are going to be required for your engine configuration please feel free to order online by adding the required items listed below to your basket. Please note that the flywheels are not a stock item and must be pre ordered for delivery on our next available routine import. If you require any further clarification, advice or details regarding the electric start components please do not hesitate to get in touch.