First day of the big swap meet this year didn't let me down, supplying my first non-Coleman suitcase stove. Overview, rough shape, dirty and rusty. 1940's vintage? At this point I was quite scared of what I may find, as the scent of stale gasoline started filling the car on the way home. Pump cup restored with just some oil and flexing. Pump bore clean. NRV screw has some deformation to it, clearly it's been messed with before. Pricker coming out the end of the generator. Didn't grab a picture, but the fill cap came off just fine. Once opened, the fuel smelled like somewhat stale white gas. Stove is from the '40s, who knows how old the fuel is? The terrible stale gasoline smell turned out to be from the 520/530 I also brought home. THAT will be another story.......... Here it is, running on the fuel that it came with after only oiling the pump cup and some pressure/safety checks. Will need to study on the air bleed knob some more, somewhat rocky start. Still burning a little orange here. Second burner cranks up fine: The burners settled down and the orange mostly disappeared after getting good and hot, returning every so often. I imagine once I put fresh fuel in it, it'll do much better. Hmm, I seem to have a running stove out here on the patio, whatever should I do with it? I have an idea. Spot of orange flame visible again through the '52 Pyrex percolator. The orange eventually disappeared entirely and didn't return. The coffee was good. Time for cleaning, rust mitigation/stabilization, and fresh fuel. Also, I hadn't noticed it doing so, but by the end of coffee percing the pump rod had pushed itself out. I pushed it in again and watched it carefully. Could barely see it push itself out, less than an inch per minute. The NRV will need some attention as well. Will post follow ups as I get it sorted. Oh, and the offer for Mimosa seeds still stands.
Dumped the rest of the fuel into my truck, and wish I had done so from the beginning instead of burning any of it in the stove. The remaining fuel was yellow and had some grit in the last little bit. The generator on this is essentially un-replaceable and I need to treat it as such. Nothing but pristine white gas from now on.
Great post. I, too, now need to find a non-Coleman US suitcase. We've had a lot of posts about them lately....I've never seen one in person.
great stove - rare over here - I gave up on finding one in Britain so bought one from America regarding the generator - a kampkook generator will fit but needs to be shortened - the whole valve slash generator assembly is interchangeable the generator tip from a modern coleman has the right thread to fit the kampkook generator but the outer diameter needs to be reduced to fit the manifold on the preway my preway turned up minus the generator tube, coil and tip so I have been busy swapping bits around to see what fits from the top down incomplete preway kampkook minus tip and pick up tube kampkook outer and tip modern coleman double burner and tip I must have an earlier version of the wedgie - it has the combined filler cap and pump I have not touched the nrv - it works ok dry so I will wait and see hope to get it burning later this summer when I have sorted out the generator
Congrats on finding the 4521. Mine is a trouble-free workhorse. Control valve on the secondary is always a good conversation starter (with other stovies, that is). ....Arch
Thanks for the kind words, folks. @Rickybob Thank you sir for the photos and info! Greatly appreciate it.
On an away mission, the Preway was called upon for breakfast duty. Bacon and purple potatoes from our garden pictured. Coffee and eggs were also on the menu. One thing I have neither properly appreciated nor been properly thankful for in the past has been the ability to eat a meal without bees attempting to carry off my plate. Worst I'd ever seen during breakfast. Edit: Park ranger stopped by, she was glad we were using a stove. We're under very strict fire watch conditions and all open flame is prohibited. No fires, no charcoal barbecues, no off road driving, no small engines, etc.
