Hey guys! I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable than me can help me out with this issue I have been having. I have three Coleman 220J lanterns, I have converted them to kerosene and one of the three is having some issues. Just in case anyone asks the reason they were converted to kerosene after I had been using them with white gas for years is kind of two fold, the majority of my other lamps/lanterns all are kero burners and it just made more sense to only stock one type of fuel (237, 201's, some old coleman table lamps, Aladdins, and a 500cp petromax clone), and kerosene is cheaper and easier to get my hands on near where I live. So the issue is one of them is dim, and it was this way before the conversion too. I just never bothered trying to fix it, but when I went though and cleaned all three, and rebuilt the generators for kero it would have fixed the issue. Well, it hasn't. It seems to be running rich, like it would if you put kerosene in a lantern that had a white gas generator on it. Its dimmer and a much more yellow color, not the bright white of the other two. All three of them are running fresh kerosene from the same container, all three are running new peerless mantles. I have tried swapping generators between the dim one, and one of the bright ones without any change so it does not appear to be the generator. I also tried swapping the burner frame from one to the other, and the problem DID follow the burner frame so I am pretty sure it is an issue with the burner frame. I have checked the mesh in both burners and they are nice and clean, and I have blown out all the air tubes, and even run a small boroscope camera down the three tubes to visually check for blockages and they are spotless on the inside. I'm guessing its some kind of manufacturing defect somewhere, maybe the generator sticking too far in to the mixing tube and blocking off some of the air causing it to run rich, but i checked and it doesn't seem to really be sticking any further in than an of the other lanterns. So really, I am at a loss to whats going on. Has anyone ever seen something like this? I may just see if i can pick up a new burner frame for a few bucks online, but I would just love to know whats actually happening here. In the pictures its pretty easy to what one is the problem child. Thanks, Patrick!
If the problem moves with the burner frame, then there has to be a some difference to the others. Perhaps you could unscrew the burner tubes and air tube from the manifold and see whether there is any obstruction in it. While you are at it, brush out the tubes with a brass and/or nylon pistol brush. Can't hurt. Also, the only places the lantern can draw air from are the two holes in the collar. On the 231 which is virtually identical there are additional holes in the collar for more air flow. The 231 also has a short length of smaller tube which functions as a venturi inside the air tube above the generator. One mine I replaced the fuel/air tube with a straight pickup tube and made the extra holes in the collar with the result that I could use a bigger jet and so push up the light output.
Hi Patrick, Don't know if you solved the problem but if not I might have an idea. Look at the pickup tube and check if the internal shaft moves freely. I've had them get stuck and not fully retract blocking the fuel pickup. Also check that the pickup tube isn't lose that will also changes the mixture ratio. With empty tanks pump up the bad one and a good one equally, open the valve and listen to the air escaping from each, they should sound the same, if the bad one seems weaker there is blockage somewhere that should be easy to find.
