Hi guys, first post here. Bought a Hiker+ in 2013 for fishing and canoeing, and have had no complaints until last year. Seems the fuel grooves in the spindle had clogged, and were in need of cleaning, along with a replacement cleaning needle. Do you recommend to change the fuel filter (attached picture)? It seems clean enough, but the parts kit comes with two replacements. How do you remove it? Thanks a lot for your help!
Welcome! If it runs fine now, I'd leave it alone. Others with greater knowledge will chime in soon enough. Idle thought, but clogging the grooves in the spindle without clogging the filter would be unusual from a contaminant standpoint. What kind of fuel were you using, and did you allow it to sit awhile and go bad?
Thanks Marc. It seems to work well now - I did one test burn with kerosene after scraping the grooves. So I mostly agree, but still can't figure out how to remove the mesh filter. Mabye a small drill bit? The grooves and threads were clogged with a black carbon-like build up, I presume from combustion? Anybody with thoughts how to clean it off I use both white gas and kerosene depending on the season. Both gallon cans date from 2013 (don't get out as much as I'd like!) but still smell good - not like varnish.
Hi, this is an old post on a stove using a Nova burner. If you look through the thread you will see the reference to a blockage in the fuel feed. I reckon it was the result of thermal cracking of the kersene fuel within the burner feed/regulator. The tarry residue then forms a blockage: https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/nomad-nova-multi-fuel-stove.27261/ Best Regards, Kerophile.
Quite common problem of Primus Omnifiel that uses similar type of control spindle... Put control spindle to test tube that has thinner or some other "aggressive" solvent. After day or two brush the black stuff away with light steel or brass brush. Maybe that filter doesn't need to be replaced. It looks quite heavy gauge filter so maybe it has not been blocked by particles in fuels that you have been using. Anyway if you want to remove the filter maybe small hook from the control spindle direction would work to push filter out.
The previously used little cotton filters did clog up but I've yet to hear about an issue with that style. Still, it would be nice to know how to remove it if (when) the need arises. The tar-deposit with this style burner is new to me, and good to know about. I've burned more Coleman fuel than kerosene in my Hiker+ (yep, living life on-the-edge, what can I say? -- I also eat trans-fats on occasion) so it might be fun to pull it apart at some point to see how it looks.
Thanks for the ideas, guys. Acetone took the tar off the spindle, although I can't remove the black staining. After running a couple tanks of fresh kerosene, the spindle came out clean, so I guess it was a fuel issue after all, Marc. I didn't realize old kerosene went bad! On a side note, I just bought an old Optimus 111 as a back-up to my Hiker+. When I get it cleaned up, I'll fire it up and see how it runs. Tim
Solvent(s) will clean tar'ish built up. Steel/brass brush is needed for black staining which I think is carbon build up. I think that it depends on fuel that is used how much there is tar and how much carbon build up. Couple of times my Omnifuel spindle has had almost only carbon build up.
Some say that f.ex. Omnifuel is unreliable and it stops working, but it is just the property of the stove that time to time some parts need cleaning. In Omnifuel that spindle and blocked fuel filters can cause stove not to work. In MSR XGK on heavy/long use there will be carbon build up in fuel feed tube so time to time it is necessary to pull out steel cable inside the fuel feed tube and clean the tube & cable. All stoves have similar "properties"...
