You guys helped me out so much with my 200A where else could I turn for help with my 228F? I finished a "functional overhaul" on the shown 228F. I stripped everything down to the last screw, polished and cleaned, bb'd the fount, and put it all back together again. It burns beautifully. So here are the issues: (1) It is now a left-handed lantern. As you can see, the valve is to the backside of the fount, 180 degrees off. Not such a big deal except the burner assembly is also 180 degrees off from the valve. The lower part of the valve assembly is very tight in the fount, I'm sure the fount would twist if I tightened another 180 degrees. And I can't back it off 180 degrees because it would be too loose. Same for the upper part of the valve assembly (burner assembly). So what do I do? Add teflon tape to the threads? Live with it? Stop obsessing? Ignore the Coleman sticker on the other side of the fount? (2) One of the previous owners (I swear it wasn't me!) snapped off the screw that holds the burner assy. in the upper part of the valve assy. Luckily he gave up there, but I won't let a snapped screw stop me! I figured my only option was to drill it out, which I did successfully and with very minimal damage. My question is, can I just leave it like that, with the hole and no screw in it? I don't think the burner assy. is going to leap out of the valve assy, and it seems to be burning great as it is. Perhaps I should take the screw out of a different 228F and see if it improves the quality of light. (3) It takes about 2-1/2 minutes for the mantles to extinguish when I shut off the valve. I never tried burning the lamp before the tear down (didn't want to waste the Coleman fuel) so I don't know if it did this before and the previous owner was trying to fix it when he snapped off the screw discussed above. Or perhaps I did something to the pointy end of the valve? What do you think? Am interested to hear your feedback! Thanks!
Left handed? I doubt I would even notice. If it works and ain't broke then don't fix it is normally the best advice for any machine. You got it running so leave it be. They do run down slowly but if it does finally die when closed off then there is nothing wrong. Gives you time to shut off and climb into a sleeping bag before the light finally goes fully out. I have always regarded that as a bonus. ::Neil::
The valve seat and cone are brass and do wear a bit. If you have access to a lathe you can do a light cut on the cone to take out the wear groove. However if you take too much off you may need to remove some thread as well,as the valve may bottom out on the thread, without the cone contacting the seat. I had a 237 that had this condition so bad you could not shut it down with the valve. It had to be shut down like a petromax-by releasing the pressure. You would not want to do that on a gasoline fired lantern. Dan MacP
Mackburner, it makes me nervous to have it running on so long, it occassionally flares, and if I wasn't watching it I'd be concerned that it would run until the tank was depressurized. I also like the consistency of all the 228F's having the controls in the same place. A friend suggested locktite but I won't go that route. I'd try teflon tape first. Am still weighing my options as to whether to fix the left-handedness. Dan, I don't have access to a lathe, but after reading your comment it occurs to me I could take the valve stem out of a known-good-shutoff lantern and see if that fixes it. Duh, why didn't I think of that before???? Which would leave me with the option of turning the old one or finding a replacement.
A bad valve stem for sure. Swapped out a known good one and that fixes the run-on. Will try to find one at oldcolemanparts.com. Haven't decided what to do on the other items yet...
