Hello all - This is my first post, and I realize it is on an older thread - but for good reason! First - thanks for this forum, it is a GREAT source of info. I've visited for several years, and now finally have something to contribute. I pulled a Kenyon 206 off a sailboat, intending to convert it to kero one day. That was a couple years ago, and I just got to fiddling with it again a couple days ago. My current thought is that I should try pressure alc before kero, as it may do just fine... But the fuel pump on the stove had a bad washer. That was what stalled me out before. I've seen the recc' here to buy a washer from Ess-Kay, but I just cannot get myself to pay US$16 for a little round piece of rubber, not without first trying to cobble something up on my own. Searching around yesterday, I read that Coleman fuel pump barrels and Kenyons are near identical in their inner diameter - something I thought might be the case based on other research. So, I ordered a half-dozen leather cup washers from Amazon yesterday, for under US$5. At first, I tried installing one on the 'bobbin-looking' part of the pump, just like the rubber piece. I got it on there and managed to cram it into the pump barrel, but had no luck getting pressure, it was simply too large and just sort of jammed up the pump. Then I tried one I cut down, figuring maybe less material might let the pump-breathing action happen. As I began stretching it onto the "bobbin", though, I wondered if I couldn't simply mount it between the bobbin and the C-clip which holds he bobbin on the pump handle shaft. That didn't work, because the pre-cut hole in the leather cup was too large. But it was an "Ah-hah!" moment. I figured that maybe the cup would work OK, riding *under* the bobbin, if I could make it stay under the C-clip and not pull off. There is precious little space there for any thickness, too little for any metal washer I have. So I improvised one, cutting a disc out of thin but stiff plastic bottle cap material. Poked a just big enough hole for the pump shaft into the center of the plastic, and put the C-clip on to hold a new, unaltered leather cup washer in place and - ...the cup works wonderfully, and the pump makes pressure. So - this is for Google to chew on and share, I hope - if you have a Kenyon Homestrand 206 alcohol stove fuel pump washer fail and it needs replacement, doing the above allows you to use a leather cup pump washer, and breathes perhaps years of new life into your old stove. Here's a picture of the cobbled-up solution. I hope it helps someone out there.
Years ago I did a similar hack on my Homestrand. IIRC I used a rubber Coleman pump cup. They work great on alcohol, though they do take some good preheat. How's yours run?
Hi Majic - Nothing new under the sun! The stove runs surprisingly well! It seems to preheat pretty quickly. That said, I am in the south of the USA and daytime temps are in the 90's right now, so that may be a factor. So far I've only test burned it a couple times, and am looking forward starting to cook with it. The flame seems to be on par with the output of the many backpacking "beer can" stoves I've made and used. Obviously better than the non-pressurized Origo currently on the boat. I plan to do a head-to-head comparison with my propane stove. The reason I was thinking to convert to kero was that kero being a 'hotter' fuel, with it I'd get more cooking time from the same amount of fuel. Living on a boat, space is always at a premium. May not be that much of a difference.
