Having problems with my Tilley 246B It lights then goes out. Can someone give me operating instructions. I don't pump it until it is pre-heated up good Then I open the valve and start to pump. POP it lights then pulses then it just dies out. Any Ideas ???
Hello, On start-up your standard Tilley only requires 10 or so pumps in order to light after a preheat, I burn mine twice just to make sure. Let it burn this way for about 90 seconds, the burner must get up to operating temperature as the preheater only gets the vaporiser tube hot enough to vaporize the fuel for start-up. The first thing I would check for is an air leak. Once you light it, if you continue to pump it does it stay lit? When the lamp goes out and you unscrew the pump from the tank is air escaping? If not then one of the rubber seals is leaking. If the tank has a pressure tit you'll want to check that it's not passing air either.
There are often problems with the X-246-B because the build quality is poor. It runs on paraffin/kerosene and do use good quality fuel, one and a quarter pints is the amount to add to an empty tank. Then turn the control cock knob clockwise so that the cleaning wire is up. Then tighten the pump and pump it 20 times, then fit the meths torch and light it and when the flame has burned down so that it's just licking the mantle, then open the control cock by turning the knob anti clockwise and leave the meths torch fitted until the flames go out. If it's cold then a second pre heating is often needed, so it's useful to have more than one meths torch. The lantern should light fairly quickly and once it does, then gradually build up the pressure another 100 strokes of the pump will be enough. If the lantern still does not light, then there is another problem or more than one. Have you cleaned out the tank and wired the fuel feed tube? There are often problems with the modern Tilley control cock, but that depends on when your lantern was made, the date stamp will be on the bottom of the tank, but you may need a magnifying glass to see it. Are all parts of the burner properly tightened? There is plenty of paperwork in the reference library, but it's only open to subscribers. If you add a few photos of your lantern, then that will help us to help you, do let us know how you get on, Jeff.
I've never given mine more than 100 strokes in total, that is including the initial 10-20 for lighting... Jeff mentioned the control cock and I did have one myself that didn't lower the cleaning wire far enough, which then as it heated and presumably the wire expanded would start to play up. In the end I replaced the control cock and it's been fine ever since. However with the lack of any further information the first guess would be loss of pressure. If you get some very soapy waster and a paint brush you can brush the soapy water around the pump and the base of the control cock and any leaks will be very quickly revealed... the beauty of this method is you can do this with the lamp still lit. If the leak was above the control cock then you would see liquid paraffin leaking out... so that seems unlikely. The other thing is to check that the pump is working correctly and actually applying pressure in the first place.
What can be done too to find out if there is any blocking is to pressurize the fount without the hood and burner, so you can see, if there is a straight fuel jet escaping the jet of the vapouriser. I had it once that the rubber seal in the control cock had doubled it's size and nearly blocked the whole diameter, so no fuel got through. I admit that this depended on the fuel I used, it was a bio lamp oil which worked fairly well but was very aggressive and caused the seal to swell up.
Thanks, I did the soapy water test and found a leak around the pump. I ordered a set of new gaskets and will replace all of them just to be safe. The Lantern is dated 1990. Thanks for the Help!!!
