hi all, recently bought a 2003? Brunton/Optimus Nova stove that came without the all-silver alloy pump. as per reading in this forum, these early Novas need the all silver alloy pumps with the CEJN connector that mates up with the CEJN quick-connect on the end of the braided fuel-line. unfortunately these pumps are no longer available new and are pretty rare down here in the deep pacific so rather than wait a year? for a used pump to turn up locally or pay triple? what the burner cost for a used pump from overseas the decision was made to see what could be done today with spares parts on hand.....a similarly sized MSR Simmerlite fuel-line, which would connect to the many MSR pumps and bottle available first up was dremelling off the brass crimp joining the simmerlite braided hose to the generator the inner of MSR fuel line seems to be a very soft and flexible black NBR rubber the thicker alloy crimp holding the threaded brass end of the Optimus fuel-line needed a slightly different technique, groove with fibre-wheel, finish with diamond bit, and it was quickly off too the inner of the Optimus fuel-line is a much stiffer clear plastic the brass fitting went into the softer rubber well then the MOST IMPORTANT part, how to safely attach and seal the join LEAKING PRESSURISED GASOLENE NEAR A STOVE MUST BE AVOIDED ideally a new crimp would be used, but a search showed this would be difficult, slow and expensive so as 'perfection is the enemy of good' decided to press-on with available parts as the rubber inner of the MSR is quite soft it was decided to repeat a repair technique that had worked for fixing split alloy tent pole ends, ie tightly binding with stainless lockwire and then encapsulating with epoxy, to cover the sharp cut end of the twisted lockwire from snagging things note, this technique would probably not have been sufficient to hold the brass end fitting in the much harder clear plastic inner of the Optimus fuel-line....however you can see the lockwire has successfully constricted the softer MSR black rubber over the brass barbs of the fitting end. once the epoxy was set the franken fuel-line was screwed to the Nova spindle and everything went outside in the large stainless dish for MSR pump and bottle connection and pressure testing........pumping up the bottle to see if any air or liquid escaped
1st burn test was White Gasolene, Durapump, small new Sigg bottle full flame looked good but simmer flame tended to chuff... next was unleaded, Durapump, big, old Sigg bottle, much the same flame characteristics next was the surprise kerosene, old yellow MSR pump, new optimus bottle priming took longer, but full power appeared much hotter AND lower power could be taken right down to a dirty candle flame with none of the chuffing seen with the gasolenes at all times a careful watch was kept on the new join as well as the bottle seals etc will have to do some more testing as well as keeping an eye on the new join but it seems the single jet on this Nova is optimized for heavier fuels like Kerosene and Diesel than lighter ones like gasolene as for the magnetic jet cleaner...i can't see why just shaking the stove wouldn't do the same thing and then i could leave the heavy tool behind for motorcycle touring as the bike tools should cover the sizes used all in all a successful day's fettling might be time to sell the slightly heavier dragonfly
sorry mods, 'fettling' is probably the wrong forum, please feel free to move to appropriate 'frankies' forum
Brass hose crimp ferrules are available in a small size IE 1/4 inch ID . That and a set of coaxial cable crimpers has tightened and replaced a few hose terminations on my MSR stoves . Looks Factory when completed . Just a thought .
thanks guys, great ideas on the hose clamp and coaxial crimpers i may use them as a way to put an msr fuel-line and pump on to my orphan sigg firejet stove......after i over-pressured an old o-ring, resulting in a small fire that melted the pump and fuel-line...see "sigg fireball" Sigg Fireball meanwhile the nova isn't looking like it will replace the dragonfly as my motorcycle touring stove unfortunately it clogs pretty quickly on unleaded gasolene and doesn't burn particularly well on white spirits where it really shines is an alcohol start kerosene stove...and i don't see the need to carry 3 fuels when the DF allows me to get away with just 1 the soto muka had a good couple of trips as a bike touring stove....before it started frequently clogging and needing o-ring replacements on the banjo bolt
