Tilley leaking

Hi new to collecting these tilleys changed the seals but were the vaporiser screws in to tank is leaking tried cleaning different seal no luck any advice appreciated destroyed the tank trying to remove the nut on top

 

It sounds like the vapouriser to valve seal is the least of your troubles?

John

 

Yes that's true but I've another tilley so switched bits to that still leaking this is how u learn I guess lol

 

I'm a bit puzzled with this one.

Apart from the vapouriser not actually being screwed directly into the tank - it's screwed into the control cock which is, in turn, screwed into the tank - all the rubber sealed joints on a Tilley are meant to be no more than hand-tight. They also have conventional right-hand threads - righty-tighty; lefty-loosey.

Maybe in the past, someone used thread-locking compound or something...

 

I thought may be I had it too tight so I've tried slowly tightening it but nothing's working even tried it with no seal I'm stumped

 

I stand corrected it's the control cock to tank that's leaking

 

Hi Darren!..Welcome to CPL!

A few pictures can always help...Do you know which model of Tilley you have as there are different control cocks and the later aluminium ones are not as good quality as earlier brass types?

Where the pricker spindle goes into the main body of the valve, there is a gland o ring that can leak as well? Or do you think it may be where the control cock seats onto the tank?

Hope this is helpful to you,

Regards

 

Hi its were the control cock screws into the tank as I pressurize tank it starts to come out there.....

 

Were the screw driver is pointing

 

Thanks for all the help

 

The nut below the screwdriver holds the cage frame to the tank. The control cock should have a seal between it and the tank at the screwdriver point. On the X246B shown the tank is topped with a double threaded spigot, the nut screws on the outside and the control cock screws into it, turning the nut will not adjust the seal between the tank and the control cock.

Hope this makes sense and helps

 

Hi yep I put a new seal there but that is leaking took it off tried another seal that leaked to

 

I tried hand tightening the I tried tightening more than hand tight then I loosened it more that hand tight leaked every time

 

Hi @Darren Oreilly

Sounds like you are doing all the right things so can understand it must be a puzzle and also frustrating for you!

Can i ask where you got the seals from? Only when i first started to fettle or restore Tilleys i bought some original Tilley repair kits only to find that the seals were as old as the lamps i was trying to fix!

So i only get newly made seals from places like The Fettlebox who sponser CPL and can be contacted on the home page on here..they use 'Viton' , its a very good type of seal.

If you have already found a good supplier then i would try and clean the surfaces where the seals sit, perhaps with some fine wire wool, taking care that you wipe any residue off after.

The Aluminium control cocks can oxidise and leave a whitish powder that can hinder a seal. Also Aluminium can be pitted again causing problems with sealing?

Did you try swapping the control cock from your other lamp to see if that helped?

 

I got em off ebay I'm starting to wonder if they the problem they are new and supposibly for tilley and any other place I used em ie pump they worked perfect I cleaned it all up etc so I'm not sure what to do unless I try a different seal

 

Seals off ebay they worked fine on everything else but here cleaned it all up etc will try different control cock
next

 

Are you sure it's not leaking from the gland seal and then dribbling down the cock to where you see it accumulating?
It's the seal that's mostly overlooked as it's well hidden.

 

Welcome aboard!

 

@Darren Oreilly a dunk test should pinpoint the leak. Empty the tank of fuel, pump in some pressure and dunk the lantern in water, air bubbles will indicate where the leak is.

 

The base seal isn't generally a problem, they 'always' seal quite easily with a new washer so my reasoning is that the small 'O' ring in the control valve is weeping and the paraffin is 'creeping' around and giving the appearance that the base seal is the issue.

Martin

 

Try an underwater check for leaks with just font washer cock and vaporiser, should be able to see a leak then.
could cage holding nut be stopping washer seating down fully?

 

That hexagonal nut inboard of the knob and gland nut is usually sealed into the body of the control cock with solder. I can't see any of that so are my eyes at fault (easily possible!) or has the solder been removed or was it never there? That could be the source of a paraffin leak which would then run down onto the seal and appear to be leaking from there...

 

More commonly stuck in with Loctite thread sealer, you can just see red traces of it here

 

Thanks Henry - that must be the modern way to do it which I've never seen before. Quicker, easier and cheaper than solder I suppose. I wonder if someone in a sweat-shop somewhere forgot the thread sealer.

I'm now intrigued to find out what's actually causing this leak. All the obvious things seem to have been covered already - which was why I was trying to suggest something else...

Nice cutaway, BTW, showing the innards of one of these - very interesting...

 

Will check this out thanks everyone

 

There's a good chance with this one, it wasn't much more than finger tight !

 

After a bit of time I know I'm thinking the new seals i got aren't the same as the original ones ie they are flat on surface with no rings on them like original i guess that's the problem

 

@Darren Oreilly

The original seals have smooth surfaces. Any patterns that appear on them when they a taken off a lamp is the result of the seal being tightened against a patterned surface.

Tony

 

Ok thanks for that info