Hi Everyone, A great new year to you and I hope that you all had a great break. Manage to spend some time fixing a couple of lamps over the holidays and the first repair for 2024 was a Coleman Northstar 2000 series DF lamp. Got hold of a copy of this very nice condition lamp but later found that the igniter is not working. Took the igniter module apart and studied the hardware and looks like the problem could have been in the design of the igniter module itself that might have been the cause of the faulty ones in the field. After taking it apart, I found that the contact from the igniter module is a non-spring contact that was designed for a firm fitting to touch the inner bottom end of the igniter. Any out of tolerance position of the ignition stem to the top will result in a higher force downwards into the igniter module below. Tweaked the bottom end of the igniter to ease off the force. On this particular unit, the contact point was actually cracked into pieces with the force - probably after some time. The whole shell of the module could also be better if was thicker. Cracks were all around the module - maybe due to the external forces that were subjected to it. Manage to pick-up the pieces and put them back together and use superglue and also two-part clear epoxy to fix it back. Reinforced the cracks all around and get them back in shape. Finally got to light the lamp with the igniter on a fresh battery and so far so good. On the side - I was quite impressed with the rubber base protection on the Coleman Northstar 2000 and rigged up one and 3D printed for the Coleman 236 and was happy with the result. Definitely helps to protect the fount and also avoid hard knocks to the other lamps.
Good to see an unusual repair topic relating to a component that makes the Northstar almost as convenient to light as an LED lamp. Nice work too on the 3D printed base pad.
An advice to you after lighting, remove the module and wipe clean. This ensures the plastic and electricals doesn't fail overtime from heat and fuel drippage from the air tube. Use white gas if you can, it's less harmful on the module from drippage. Ethanol in the fuel will wreck these modules over time. It seems that heat and stray fuel loves to wreck these modules.
Hi, Thank you for the advice. Yeah I gave a good stare at the igniter module and wondered how it could become that brittle at some point. Suspecting the unleaded fuel that it was used with I think. I cleared out the left over fuel (smelled like Unleaded fuel) and left it to dry out in capped for some time. Stripped it apart and gave it a good wipe. Filled up with white gas (here in OZ it’s Shellite) and so far the first fire up went well. I had to clean away the black gunky residue at the clipping point of the mantle and the top of the round mixing chamber. The Unleaded fuel might have left those gunk. Fortunately they are removable with the wire brush.
