Hello, I recently found a coleman 200A in pretty good shape but it's not supplying fuel. The fount does hold pressure. I've taken it mostly appart and noticed the inside of the fount is very gunky, as if fuel was left in it for decades. It's not really rusty, just had this thick gunky layer. All the fount cleaning stuff I've read seem to deal with rust (BB method etc). I put coleman fuel in it and let is sit and shaked it but it does not seem to remove the gunk that is inside. I'm wondering what would be a good solvent to use? Thanks!
Vinegar does an amazing job cleaning grime off lamps. I don't muck around with pussy 1:3 vinegar and water. I use vinegar how I like my scotch, full strength. I have a brass nut on a steel bolt that I dropped into full strength vinegar today, I'm going to check it in a week and see if the demon vinegar has eaten it. I somehow doubt it. After checking it in a week, I'll throw it back in for another week and so on and check it's progress. I have been using full strength vinegar for many years and have never seen any detrimental effect I couldn't buff out in a few seconds. I do however wonder about it's effect on soldered joints. I don't have enough experience with that so I'm careful about the soldering on founts.
Matty I use 1:3 vinegar (or "Marine Clean" for really hard jobs - but it's expensive). I wouldn't use neat vinegar on something you can't see well (inside a tank). Therefore my humble advice is diluted vinegar, 3 hours, well shaken (with a half hand full of bearings or sinkers), and repeat until the tank is clean. Cheers Tony
Hi Tony, I haven't cleaned inside a fount as yet. I mentioned previously that I'm unsure of what affect straight vinegar would have on the solder. Still, I can't see why using straight vinegar with your ball bearing idea for short periods should have a marked effect as long as you rinsed and dried well. I certainly wouldn't leave straight vinegar inside a fount for hours at a time. I have no problems with doing that with detachable parts. I do rinse and dry more than once. How does the 1:3 vinegar stack up against the results of the marine clean? What is in marine clean?
"Marine Clean" is a product produced by the company that makes POR15 which is used to seal leaking fuel tanks, and sometimes used (eg by me) to seal lantern tanks with stress cracks. It's bloody expensive, but I found some remainder at an auto shop in Hobart, and got it for $20. I think Marine Clean is now called POR something... The thing about Marine Clean is that it doesn't react with metals; is effective at x10 dilution; keeps forever; and can be used over and over. I've had a one litre bottle of marine clean for over two years and it's still half full. I use it in a ultrasonic cleaner to free up seized joints in things that are easily broken or bent. Tony
The bottom of the fuel pickup tube that I removed from the fount had the gunk really caked on it and I tried soaking it in laquer thinner for about 5 minutes. It dissolved the gunk really well. I think I'm probably going to use laquer thinner in the fount to clean it, then flush it with coleman fuel.
Coleman fuel (or Shellite) is too expensive down under to be used as a cleaning agent! The cheapest it can be bought is around $12.25US/per gallon, IF you can find it in 5 gallon drums...
Matty. The point about vinegar is it is an acid and it destroys brass. After treatement the brass will be pink and that tells you the acid has eaten zinc and there are micro cracks in the metal. The pink is of course the copper. You can polish the metal back to brass but the micro cracks are still there and in 20 or more years the metal will stress crack. You can use it neat or diluted but if the brass turns pink then you have damaged it. ::Neil::
dgod, If you have taken the fuel valve out of the fount, the bottom part that you're calling the pick-up tube is the fuel/air (FA) tube assembly. Unscrew it from the bottom of the valve. Inside the FA tube you'll find a spring and a thin rod. Remove them (taking note of the spring placement) from the tube and clean thoroughly, being very careful not to bend the rod. Now with a toothpick or some other pointed non-metallic object clean the hole in the bottom of the FA tube. There is also a hole near the top on the side of the FA tube. It also needs to be clear. You should be able to put your finger over the top of the FA tube, blow through the hole in the bottom and have air come out the hole in the side. When you put the FA tube back on the valve open and close the valve with the control knob. When the valve is closed the little rod should protrude slightly from the hole in the bottom of the FA tube. As the valve is opened the rod should retract into the FA tube until the hole is completely unblocked. Do a search on the Coleman Collector's Forum, there are a couple of good explanations of how the Coleman instant light system works.
I ended up replacing the generator, the fuel/air tube, and cap gasket and now the stove is running like a champ. It does seem to run very hot, the top red cap turns a dark red from the heat, though it does seem to return to it's original color when cool. I tried various solutions in the fount with bb's, including citric acid solution, coleman fuel, etc and nothing was able to remove the 1/8 inch thick layer of rusty gunk. In the end I used laquer thinner and that was the only thing that worked.
Hello. Great that you got your 200 running well. It's normal for the ventilator (red cap) to get extremely hot, and the red ones do change color to a darker shade. They always turn back to nice red when they cool off. It sounds like it's running as it should.
