I have just taken out the preheater from the tank of the lantern and removed the torch sleave. I'm interested in knowing if anyone has a parts diagram that they could send me so that I know how to disassemble it further. Given that it has a plastic nut on the base, I don't want to end up wrecking it by making a silly mistake, knowing full well that there are no replacements available. Any help will be much appreciated.
Firstly, there isn't a Tilley 360x lantern. If you got that number from the underside of the tank, then it's the date of manufacture - March 1960. The most common lantern Tilley were producing at that time was the X246, but from what you say about a preheater in the tank etc. I daresay you have an X359 which was also in production in 1960. If you post a picture of your lantern, someone will confirm exactly what model it is. Otherwise look in the lamp reference gallery for the X359 - click here - and see if your lantern compares The X359 is a rare model which was not in production long, largely because the preheater was problematic. You don't want to be messing about with it until you know exactly what you're doing. In any case, these lanterns can be lit using the conventional Tilley torch and you should use one of those rather than the preheater. Apart from anything else, the preheater can crack the glass globe - easily replaceable but not cheap... Welcome to the forum, BTW...
Yes it is a 359. The reason for wanting to disassemble the torch is that it is leaking air and I believe it might be stuck in the open position. The pin in the head of the torch, which the sleve fits on has broken off, however this can be easily fixed. Just would like to see a parts diagram or have an idea how to disassemble it.
Just click on the link I supplied and look at David McC's post - scroll down and there are images of a disassembled Tillite preheater as well as a useful discussion concerning how it works...
Many thanks, now I know that the special washer is totaly missing, hence why it has been leaking air.
These Tillite preheaters gave Tilley so much of a problem, they removed them and replaced them with a simple bolt - see Mick Emm's lantern in the same link. You could do that and light the lantern conventionally. Otherwise you could try cutting a new seal from synthetic rubber sheet - try nitrile or Viton. Good luck!
I managed to shape a washer from Nitrile but my attempts to soldier a pin to the sleave section kept coming undone after use. So in the meantime just blanked out the torch with a disk of nitrile rubber. Then serviced the rest of the lantern and fired it up as shown.
I was going to ask a jeweller friend of mine to do the re-soldering for me - I reckoned he would have the skills, ability and materials to accomplish the repair. I never got around to it and now I've lost touch with him... Still might be worth asking your local jeweller - how much can they possibly charge for a simple solder repair? That's a good compromise repair you've made. The lantern can still be used and you've retained the original appearance - much better than using a bolt, which makes the lantern look like an X246A with a posh hat. Have you re-registered with a new username? i.e. are nzlantern and Clive one and the same person? Nice lantern BTW... 8)
Long story re mix up of registrations. When I logged in later today for some reason my password was not accepted so I registered an autoset and somehow on logging back in my user name has changed. I need to log a call with the admin to sort it out.
