I need your help. I ran across this MSR stove the other day with an interesting back story and I'm trying to pin this one down. There is some great information here about these stoves but this one has some things that don't add up for me, maybe you folks can enlighten me a bit. First the back story: I got this stove from an 80 year old Veteran this morning who took it on many summer bicycling trips around Finland. He said the Boy Scouts were always impressed with both the size of the pre-heat flames and the roar once she got to temp. He said he switched to a Pocket Rocket several years ago and this stove got pushed aside. When I went to look at it he said he found a few things that went with it, two extra fuel bottles(the silver ones in this picture). He said it was hard to fill the smaller red one at the gas stations there so he got the two bigger ones to fill the red one from. The larger one is a Sigg, the smaller one is a newer West German brand with an 18 letter name I can't pronounce correctly. Neither sit completely flat anymore from some hard earned dents. He said the fuel in two of the bottles was 10+ years old. His asking price was fair, I didn't haggle. He offered to fire it up but I didn't really want to wait for it to cool back down again so it followed me home. Now the stuff I have questions about: The fuel block is unmarked so no available date code(When did they start date coding the fuel blocks on this style stove? I've seen as early as Feb '81 here in the reference gallery.). I believe it has the longer fuel line with a cleaning cable but it has the shorter type block bail. It has the slim knob spark lighter with the solid base nut(which still works after some adjusting). It has a metal base plate with what looks like an off the rack P/N sticker and a $10 price on it(maybe a service replacement for the original bakelite base?). It has a castle shaped G jet installed(it came with another G and a K castle style jets and oddly a later set screw style X-G jet). It has the GK style rounded full circle pre-heat loop, not sure if it's the long or short spring. (Photo credit @hikin_jim) It came with the yellow pinned pump(it makes pressure and dribbles when the valve is opened, it's currently outside on a time out because now it won't stop dribbling, lol). The pump is on the small MSR bottle so tight the o-ring is now a flat washer . I didn't want to break it so not sure what the tubes look like yet. Note: I have another pinned yellow pump this style that doesn't have the red logo on the pump knob or the red arrow on the valve. What do you guys think, is this a GK? About when do you think it was it made? Calling @Doc Mark
I think it's an older XGK; looks just like mine. They came stock with the metal base plates. ....Arch
The fuel pump washer is flat originally. Lay pump upside down and open valve to release air. Nice find.
@Oldhenry1 To me, you have a replacement housing, no big deal with the age of theses stoves, and a Shaker "G" jet, again no big deal but I can't remember if the cleaning needle fits as the original would have been a non-shaker jet so I don't think so. It took a while for my brain to decipher picture #5. Still you have a good stove with history, but I would retire the yellow pump for a new red one. Mike
@Oldhenry1 +1 w/HunterStovie my something new learned today an example of **replacement "XGK enclosure assm." all your pics are of same side of burner enclosure, can we see the other side? ** given that ^^^ it is now a bitsa. So you're correct "...but this one has some things that don't add up..." re your "What do you guys think, is this a GK? About when do you think it was it made?" I "think" it is/was originally a G/K, w/those jets originally it would have had the later bakelight base. This would make it pre-1981, for sure (long catch arm began in 81). So, originally a 1979/80 G/K is my educated guess. (the G/K ver. prev to yours had 1, same type jet but unmarked).
Great tip, I never thought of that. Here is the other side of the enclosure(I'd be happy to take more pictures). I was thinking it might have had a bakelite base originally, that was one of the things that didn't add up for me.
