Ok so I got a 502 from ebay and its nice shape I took it apart and cleaned it up. There was rust and corrosion around the filler mouth that I used some steel wool to clean up as best I could(some still there)So when I filled the tank and pumped it up air is leaking out from around the cap. So my question is is there supposed to be any rudder or cork gasket in the filler cap? Or how can I fix this problem either cleaning it better or new cap? I thought about taking a small file to smooth out the filler mouth some more. Any help is much appreciated.
The cap has a nitrile rubber sealing ring inside that is probably hard with age. The three piece Coleman caps can be fixed up with a new seal but with the one piece caps, generally nobody bothers. The best solution is to buy a new cap. The brass ones look good if you cant get a matching shade of green. The 502 is a great stove, you'l love using it.
CJ, I think I may have seen a cork gasket on some of the older Colemans. I have a brass colored cap still in the package if you want it. PM me and leave your mailing address. Chef BC
Hi cigarjoe congratulations on your score of a 502 which is my favourite coleman stove and proberbly one of the best single burner stoves they made. there is supose to be a nitrale rubber gasket on the filler cap once you fit one your stove will be able to hold pressure unless there are leaks else where
Yep, CJ, that would be a three piece cap. I took mine apart, used a propane torch to heat up the inner piece and burn out the old gasket, put in a small O-ring, put it all back together, and all's good! Murph
Harbor Freight has a small kit of nitrile O-rings that they put on sale frequently for about $6. They have about 250 O-rings and work great for filler caps and reserve caps.
I just went thru my recent 502 acquisition from 1965, the generator had some gummy build up, scraped that off and checked the cap gasket, nice and soft if shrunk up a little, left it in. Added gas after carb cleaner had sat in the tank all week, when I dumped that out, it was clear. Sputtered a little and needed a few matches to start, but ran fine for half an hour with no attention. Nice. Do all 502 generators fit this year? Duane
Thank you Steve. Not a high flame, but I have nothing to compare it to. It isn't going to be high like a suitcase is it? Duane
the nice thing about the 502 is that honestly, you'll never need a replacement generator unless you've tried running the thing off coal tar, and then the generator is the least of your problems... (the 502 generator can be disassembled and easily cleaned)
Thanks Steve. Nothing like that. I'll have to pick up a new one. It's about half that, that's why I asked if it should be like a suitcases flame. I scraped off the rod inside the generator, some tarry stuff on it that would would not come off with emery cloth. I imagine then that the inside is the same. Duane
You need to clean the spring inside there too. Pull out the rod. Get a heavy duty paper clip, put a 90 degree bend at one end with needlenose pliers, and screw it into the generator. Now pull the spring out. You can scrape it, or burn it off (it's carbon sludge). This should help a lot! Of course, you can replace the original with a new one, and clean up the old one for a spare. Have fun!!
Hey Duane, You may need to do a few heat quenches on that generator to get the coil out. If it's carboned up so bad that it won't burn right, the coil is likely a solid block of carbon. Remove the gas tip and heat it with a torch till its dull red and dunk it in cold water several times. Do this outside because nasty smoke, flames and sparks tend to come out both ends during this process. If it still wont budge, let it soak in vinegar overnight and try again. It will come out eventually, but can be a bear. There is also a little brass mesh in the end that will likely be destroyed in the process but it's not critical and can be straightened and or replaced. You also may need to clean the fuel/air tube and the entire fuel circuit. If it's gunked up it will really hamper output. But start with the generator, definitely. Once these are cleaned up and you run CF in them, you'll get hundreds of hours out of it before you need to service the generator again. Of course, if you do it every 50 hours, the coil will just slide out on it's own, and it will be MUCH easier to clean. The vinegar will also eat that stuff off the cleaning rod very quickly with some steel wool. I don't recommend soaking that one overnight since the needle itself is steel and the vinegar may attack it more aggressively and ruin it. Not sure on that last part, but they clean really easily with a 15 minute soak. Here's one of mine running. 502 Video Mike
Well, I'm at work, so I'll pick up a new one if I can, then clean the old one this weekdend when I get home. Vinegar acts that fast? Should be fun to watch. Duane
Fun to watch? So, you plan on staying up all night watching a generator soak in vinegar. You need to get out more...... Make sure the vinegar gets inside. Sometimes it won't on its own unless you rattle it around while it's submerged. Mike
