It did look like the key was jumping around but I couldn't tell if it was cause or effect. That said, all of @snwcmpr 's suggestions make sense. Two in particular are really good safety advice even without the ticking. Removing the key is always a good thing to do. They can get hot! And placing the stove on a solid surface makes knocking the stove over much less likely to happen. Regards John
I took the stove out of the case today, removed, cleaned and checked the spindle which all looked in good order. There was some evidence of dirt from old fuel which I cleaned out from the spindle hole and from below the jet / pricker. I reassembled the stove (out of the case) and ran the stove again. No change, the ticking was the same as before, and seems to be coming from the fuel feed. I notice that when the angle of the stove changed the ticking reduced so I gave the stove a couple of gentle taps to try to clean though any detritus which could be causing the issue. This seemed to slightly reduce the tick if not remove it. I decided to leave the stove running for a while and after around 10 minutes, there was a slight change to the flame and the ticking stopped! I suspect there may have been a slight build up due to old fuel in the feed pipe or on the wick which cleared itself. I will test again tomorrow. Hopefully the improvement persists! https://youtube.com/shorts/BWtEuByO15k?si=CJWozPqgFeZpYN3G https://youtube.com/shorts/LRI0UquK8OQ?si=bvE-RfgQ0hPkggjZ
Unfortunately the tick returned today, but I think I may have discovered the cause! The clicking appeared to be coming from the fuel feed pipe so I theorised that the brass wire to which the wick is attached may be loose and intermittently tapping against the fuel pipe as as the fuel was drawn through. This would also explain why it increased the more open the valve was and why the flame would slightly pulse in time with the clicking. Upon removing the burner assembly from the tank the wick tuned out to be mainly in the tank not the pipe and was also very loose (either the wick had compressed or there was simply not enough). I’ve ordered a new wick (no mop to hand to cannibalise!) and will report back once it has arrived and been installed.
@optiben80 yeah I'm curious too. Btw you can use pure cotton yarn for knitting if you got a fabric store near.... But yeah .. wick should be snug but not tight. Shouldn't come out easy.... Watching this thread to see what happens
The wick arrived from Base Camp this week. It was a little shorter than the original so I had a couple of tries at installing it to get the placement and quantity correct. In the end I reused the original wire with about 60% of the wick which arrived. The alignment of the burner mechanism was quite off when tightened up. I didn’t want to over tighten the tapered thread so I added some thread tape to adjust. It looks like my assessment of the cause of the ticking being the wire from the wick tapping the feeder tube may have been correct as this seems to have been solved. I’ll test the stove periodically over the next few days. In the meantime here’s a couple of links to the stove firing up and after it’s fun for a few minutes:
