Here is one of the stoves I acquired last weekend. 9/69 425E in great shape and only $5. I did the 'bb' cleaning with pellets in the tank. Gas didn' smell that great, but I've smelt worse. I cleaned the whole thing and even sprayed the manifold out as I couldn't get the stove to light and thought the manifold might be a habitat and full of 'stuff'. After it dried out I tried to fire it up but was unsuccessful. I could never achieve the 'wet gurgle' in the manifold enough for it to light until tonight when I tried it 'down to burn' and it lit. When it's hot I get a bit of yellow flame and when you go 'up to light' it starts to peeter off and the blue flame ring starts to distort but didn't quite go out. If you start it 'backwards' it fires up and runs and sounds fine except for the partial yellow flame. Thoughts? thanks mates, 8)
Something isn't right. There is a cleaning wire in the fuel tube. Along with a spring which make up the Coleman quick lite feature. Take it apart. The spring or air holes may have gunk around it. From old fuel no doubt. Jeff
Blowing air through the manifold will not clean out the "stuff" inside. You must push some kind of cleaning wire through. I prefer to us a bronze bristle brush of which i have a few. You can also use a long "pipe cleaner" type device. Take the burner rings apart and also clean from that side. Remember the order. There could be some gunk still in the riser tube inside the valve assembly. You may have to remove the valve assembly and clean the riser tube. Clamp the valve assembly, in a vice, by the square part on top and use the tank as your wrench. Once off you can easily see if the riser is gunked up. I suggest using some teflon tape when reassembling the unit. lance
getting this one running is definitely worth the $5 - that suitcase looks like it's in great shape! good luck!
Hi Russ, 5 buck is a great deal! I think it's gummed up f&a tube as well. The lever IS working right if it "peeters out" in the up position when hot. Probably just gunk in the tube or pickup. Pretty simple 5 minute clean and re-install. Lance's advice with the vise is the easiest way to remove it. Pretty easy to mar up the valve with a wrench. On the yellow flame, old or dirty fuel, or dirty generator. Might as well clean the generator as well. Mike
Excellent. I'll clean the F/A tube and the generator and go from there. This stove is a keeper so it'll get a proper fettle and off we go... 8)
try the carburetor cleaner trick first,that may clear it out before you take it apart.you don't need to put much in the fuel.for a 123 i just used spoon fulls.if it fires up like that the cleaner running thru the system should do it.let it run and move the adjustments around while it's burning.i have got more than one of these nice old stoves to work that way..great buy!!! my fellow stovies are nice guys but they are in the "wrench and screw driver gang"----
I suppose you are correct, Dave. It may work to use carb cleaner. But to clean it properly, you must remove it. I am a proud member of the "take it apart just because gang" too. HA! Mike
I haven't been a 'always take it apart' guy and will try the carb cleaner first but will 'prolly' in the end take it apart and give it a proper cleaning. Like I said, it's a keeper and I want it to perform proper and normal. All the tips are great and will be or could be used now and in the future. I'm a noob at this after all and knowledge if power and if Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor taught us anything it's "MORE POWER"! Thanks mates, 8)
Congrats on a great deal~! My 425E (purchased recently) does the same thing (not wanting to light, flame distorting, etc) when I'm trying to get it going, I need to try lighting it in the down position and see if it works. Someone on here posted that on some 425s, if there were parts replaced and the wrong part used, it will still work fine but the lighting lever may work 'backwards', in other words light it in the down position, then turn it up once it's burning well.
one of my many works funky on start up, needs a good takin apart and cleanin........ or I can follow the note I taped to it that says start it in the go position and let it warm up a bit longer.. or I can use one of the many others ;-)
Centuryhouse, That was me on the wrong part thing. The chances of that, however, are remote. For one, it's very rare for that part to fail. Two, it's a cast iron bitch to remove. Though I am a "take it apart just because" guy, this is one item(Coleman check valves being another) that I DON'T remove unless it's broken/leaking and all other methods fail fix the problem. Unlike the valve stem, this one can't break the graphite packing loose by turning it. It must be "dug out". So, I highly recommend leaving that alone, even if it is the wrong one as long as it works. It's really simple to tell after removing the valve assembly from the tank. If the lever is down and the air rod/needle is retracted into the f/a tube, it's the right one. If it blocking the hole in the end, it's the wrong one. Rotating the lever will extend and retract the needle. If you got the wrong part, I'd just relabel the tank "Down to light Up to burn" I have too many of these, so, I'd surely forget which one. When lighting it, however I'd be quickly reminded. Mike
OK, I did a quick scan of the posts so far and did not see a mention of the orifice cleaning pin being put in backwards. I have done this myself when I pulled the cleaning rod out of the generator to clean it and the Up/Down leaver was in the wrong position when I re-installed the cleaning rod. Doing this reverses the position of the pin relative to the lever position. Just a thought.
You totally lost me there, Sparky. The cleaning needle is in the generator and screws into the valve spindle. The lighting lever is next door to it and the parts don't touch. The fuel/air needle screws into the eccentric block, which is held captive by the lighting lever. I don't understand how any of these parts can be installed backward. Mike
The cleaning lever rotates an eccentric cam that moves the needle in and out. It hooks onto the rod that runs thru the generator. The lever is rotated to run the needle thru the generator orifice. At least this is how it works on the other stoves I have cleaned up. If you hook the rod to the cam in the wrong position, it is in when it should be out. Is this not how the cleaning needle works on this stove?
It's a very common misconception that the lighting lever is a cleaning lever. I've seen "expert" videos where the operator tells the camera to rotate the "cleaning lever" several times before lighting then to open the valve a 1/4 turn....WRONG... It's not like a 502. Coleman suitcases don't work like that. I operates more like a 500 except the air lever is integrated into the same valve body as the fuel/cleaning/regulating spindle. The air lever's sole purpose is to operate the air rod that opens and nearly closes the fuel pickup. It is not linked to the fuel valve or cleaning needle in any way. They operate completely independent of one another. Nothing is hooked into anything on the Suitcase stoves. Both cleaning needle and f/a rod screw into the valve spindle and eccentric block respectively. There is no reason to remove the f/a rod from the eccentric block so it should be left attached. It's pretty easily broken if you try. Coleman suitcase teardown Mike
It has been several years since I tore down a suitcase stove so my recollection may indeed be faulty. So the turning of the round knob moves the cleaning wire in and out?
Right, It's screwed right into the end of the valve spindle. So, when you shut it off, the needle is sticking out the end a bit. If a bit of crud breaks loose in the generator and clogs the jet, just shut it off and back on a couple times. If your fast, you won't even have to relight it. Mike
Yep, Mike is right. The lighting lever for the fuel/air pickup is all it is. It just opens up the air inlet so more air can pass into the generator from the tank to get a better air/fuel mix when lighting. As soon as the fuel is at vaporization stage, the lever is turned down to close off the air inlet from the tank and only pass fuel. You may lose air during this process and thus pressure in the tank, requiring a few more extra pumps to re-pressurize it. That fuel pickup tube will either get clogged at the bottom in the tank or at the top of the tube inside the tank and you'll get nothing. The tube may also be completely clogged requiring removal to clean the entire thing out. The stove above may have either the air or the fuel pickup at the bottom clogged or partially clogged. It's not so bad of a task to pull the valve off the tank and clean all of it. It's very much worth doing. This is the usual reason for these suitcases not working most of the time, other than the generator getting carbonized, like the above stove *may* be experiencing. sam
