my primus does not work anymore

hello,

i am salva, spanish cyclist around the world.

hey, first of all, my primus is an old multifuel stove. one of those with a long hose. never a problem in 10 years. yesterday, arriving in ulanbaator, first time i have to get a cold dinner.

the fire-gas did not come. even after pumping a lot, no pressure enough to bring the spring of petrol out. only yellow fire and then, finished.
i thought it was because of the bloody bad quality mongol petrol. the day before, i remember the fire was not powerful as always.

today i have take apart the whole stove. i have cleaned it, blowing in the pipes as strong as i could. i bought clean petrol. and i tried. nothing again.

even if i pump for 50 times, the petrol does not come out as it has to. just in the better case, there is a slow drop by drop. but even if i put petrol over the stove to make the preheating, there is no gas fire. there is nothing, actually.

when i open the tank, pressure is coming out. so, i think the pump is ok.

i have no clue what is going wrong. please, any help? am i forgetting something to do?

thanks a lot.
salva

 

Hello Salva, is there a way for you to check the pick up tube connected to the pump if it is blocked? There is definitely a blockage since there is pressure so it should force the fuel into the hose all the way to the burner.

Welcome to the forum.

Ron

 

salva2africa,

Welcome to the CCS forum. Sorry to hear about your stove trouble especially while being away from home.

It would help to know the exact model/type of stove that you are using but it will not totally prevent us from diagnosing the problems in general.

1st of all you are able to confirm tank pressure. It sounds like you can pump up and release pressure. The pressure that you release, is it from unscrewing the pump or out the fuel line????

Is the fuel line screwed or crimped onto the burner assembly?? If not crimped unscrew the line and see if fuel is reaching the inlet to the stove this will isolate the trouble to the burner assembly.

Never a problem in 10 years!! That's great, but also a sign that you could have gathered 10 yrs of carbon deposits in the vaporizer assembly. You will probably need the multi-wrench/tool to disassemble the burners jet and vaporizer for a thorough cleaning(Model specifics will be very helpful for this). It is possible that you could find debris and fouling from the "mongol gas" lodged in the burner base.

Hope this helps,

AR

 

salva,

Is this like your stove??

Link - to Primus Himalaya image in CCS Ref gallery

AR

 

Sounds like the Primus Himalaya Multifuel. Does it have the type of connection that can go on a propane cannister as well as the pump and bottle?

Do you have the tool that allows you to unscrew the jet (tiny hole) from the burner? Removing and cleaning inside this would be useful.

 

hello everybody and many thanks for the answers and the welcome,
very kind and useful forum!
i am really worried about this issue since i am going to cross to siberia and in case my stove is broken, here in ulanbaator i can only find msr whisperlite stove. and, well, for below zero dinners... i would like to trust in my primus....

ron, thanks. yes. i have been thinking that this tube parallel to the pump can be the problem. but the botton, the metalic inlet, looks pretty white. yesterday i try to clean it softly and it did not work. so i was afraid to try harder and break something...

ar, yes, my primus stove looks like the himalaya model, but with two differences:
- the metallic ring on top of the burner is bigger
- the fuel line, this wired hose, is assembled with the pump. i can unscrew it a bit, but that's it. i cannot take it out. maybe i can, but i do not know how.

the pressure comes out from the tank when i unscrew the pump. there is no leaking pressure from the hose.

what i can unscrew in my stove is this wired hose from the burner itself. so, i can blow in the metallic pipe of the burner and clean the burner.
if i blow into the wired hose, then i can blow the drops of gasoline left and they go out through the tube (this plastic tube parallel to the pump inside the tank).

i have this multiwrench tool. pretty strange, by the way. i will try to see if there is anyway to unscrew the wired hose from the pump, but i do not have much hopes. i remember to have tried in the past.

and david, yes, in my tool i can see that it has the proper shape to unscrew the small piece where the tiny hole is, but so far, i do not find the way to do it, since the space is that small that it is blocking the entrance of the tool. but i am going to try again harder, more patience maybe.

well, i am going back to the stove and i will do as following,
- try to unscrew the small piece of the burner and clean it.
- try to clean harder the metallic botton piece of the tube parallel to the pump, but... if fuel can go through it from my blowing, isn't it still working right?
thanks to your answers, i do not loose hope to fix it. i think by your answers that is a problem of dirtiness.

if any of you see more light in this tunnel, please, let me know.
thanks again!
salva

 

I have a new model of your stove (omnifuel), wich is a tad diferent, but maybe I can help.

Seems like you have flow in the pump (the inlet tube you mentioned) and in the hose itself).

First of all, disassembly the jet nipple (that piece in the center of the burner that has a tiny hole in it, from wich that vapor gas comes out). Clean it with the multitool. Take care not to enlarge that tiny hole using other objects like sewing neddles.

All it's left is the rigid tube on the burner unit, wich is called the "generator". You should detach the hose from the burner unit and put the hose away. Looking into the tube in the burner unit, now exposed, you should find a wire. Move this wire back and forth inside the tube, to clean some carbon deposits.

Then, put the jet nipple back, reattach the hose and pump some fuel trough the entire system. This fuel is to clean the residues into the generator, that you have losen with the wire. So don't prime yet, nor burn this fuel. Let some 50ml of fuel run, it should be enough.

Then you can prime and light properly.

Other possibility: My new model has a small "filter stone" in two locations in the fuel line: in the exposed end of the inlet tube in the pump and inside the connection between the hose and the burner unit. If bad fuel has been burned, these filter will need replacemente. Sounds like your model doesn't have these, but you can check it. It's a small white filter stone, that goes gray or black if blocked. In this case, I think you can take them out and use without it (these are just filter stuff, it won't interfere in the use). Then, when you're back home, order some new spares.

If you want some instructions, look for the a great non official manual. Put this: "primus multifuel manual filetypedf" in the google and you should find it among the firsts results.

Hope you can manage to clean it and get it running again.

Rafael

 

Hi

Do you have the primus varifuel
https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/8524
The fuel line does screw out.

You can strip most of the pump with you multi tool

The plastic fuel pick up pipe just pulls out.

There are not many places a pump can be blocked

Try the fuel line and pick up before stripping the pump.

You will get is sorted, and next time it happens you will have no probs fixing it, just be careful not to lose any parts of you will be cooking on yak dung.

If I have identified you stove correctly just google primus varifuel instructions and you should get a break down picture of the pump.

Dan

 

I have looked for a pdf of the varifuel but keep getting one for the multifuel/varifuel which shows the pump with the lindal connection. I am pretty sure we are looking for the varifeul pump as you say the fuel line is connected to the pump. Does anyone have a set of instructions for the VARIFUEL?

Dan

 

Ah, to have full access in order to take the jet nipple out, you'll have to take apart the flame spreader (that metal piece on top of the burner), was you aware of that?

Rafael

 

Looking at the photos in the link I gave above the fuel line screws out by hand, no tool needed. It is infact the correct way to disconnect this stove from the pump (rather than at the stove end of the fuel line). Unscrew then pull.

If I am wrong and you don't have a vari fuel dis-regard this. If you do have a varifuel it seems amazing that you have had 10 years with no other problems, I had a varifuel that blocked up frequently.

I couldn't sell it fast enough.

 

hello again,
thanks a lot, guys.

rafael, thanks. i want to remember the model is varifuel. i think you are right. sorry, but it is long time ago i bougth it.
yes. after a better cleaning and more patience, i saw the way to unscrew the burner in two little holes for the end of the tool!
i took apart everything. to be honest, the small piece of the burner wasn't too dirty. just dirty. but i cleaned everything very well. they shine now.
even i had a spare rubber seal ring for the tank, and i changed it.
i expected it was going to work again, and... no! same! just some bubbles of petrol coming and not even enough to preheat.

rafael, i did not shake that wire. i am going to do it now. maybe this is a solution.

i am more concerned that the problem comes from this plastic tube that goes into the tank. i want to remember some years ago i started to have power problems, i changed it and it was perfect again.
if the problem is the tube, can i clean it? i am afraid i cannot find primus spare parts in ulanbaator.

anyway, maybe i am wrong. i will try to shake this wire.

dan, thanks. my primus is very similar to this model, but absolutely i cannot take out the hose from the pump. i unscrew it and after some mm out, it stops. it cannot go further.

let's see. i am getting more worried, guys. last thing i want to do in this world is to cook with yak dungs!
thanks.
salva

 

From http://www.nagear.com/downloads/primuscamping/Stoves/Instruction-3288_3278_Multi-and Varifuel.pdf

 

If you have any way of taking photos of your whole stove kit and uploading it to the internet that would clear up all the confusion.

(I am just thinking he might have a Primus branded fuel bottle with a completely different pump/burner)

 

thanks a lot again!

david, thanks for the instructions. very helpful. i did this afternoon again a cleaning and i moved the cleaning wire. no success again. but i did not pull the cleaning wire out as the instructions say. tonight i am tired of the stove, i am getting sick and depressed ... i will try tomorrow.

anyway, i do not why but i am more concerned that the problem is the plastic tube that goes in the tank. may it be? too worn out?

and yes, my stove is exactly same than the one on the instructions but the fuel line is assambled with the pump. i cannot unscrew it.
i do not want to give up.tomorrow, 3rd day! my options for a new stove here are msr or optimus....

thanks
salva

 

oh, i can take some pictures, but i am not good with internet. i can send them somebody by email or download here if there is way.
salva

 

You can email your photos to me: david.colter@gmail.com

If you have a Yahoo! account then you can use the http://www.flickr.com/ service to show your pictures, if you have a Google/GMail account you can use http://picasaweb.google.com/
Most email providers also do image hosting, have a look at the home page for yours.

You can attach picture files directly to your posts here but you have to use the 'Image Optimiser' tool here to reduce the size first.

Whichever way you do it, you can use the Image button above the Full Reply box here to display the picture in your post like this:

|imgRemoved|

Which comes out as:

 

I am currently having big problems with a brand new Optimus Nova+ and I am not the only one here to have had trouble with Optimus products.

In your situation, if I could not get the Primus running reliably then I would get the MSR. In fact, I'd get the MSR anyway and carry both. If weight/size is an issue on the bike, the MSR and Primus will almost certainly use the same fuel bottle.

Can anyone with a Primus and an MSR confirm this? I'm 99% certain but in Mongolia you need 100% certainty!

 

the msr stove needs an msr bottle ideally but a primus will use an msr bottle,
personally i agree with David given the choice of an msr if it's an xgk ex [or dragonfly if you can't get the xgk] or a Nova [pos] then get the msr the novas are nothing but trouble unless your using sparkling clean fuel imo and i doubt Mongolia fuel is going to be the cleanest in the world
the xgk's are going to burn pretty much anything you care to throw at them

 

Hi I am sure that you unscrew the fuel line (as you have done already) and then give it a pull, there will be an O-ring in there that makes it a little stiff. The plastic fuel pick up pipe should just pull out too, a firm straight pull. It is simply pushed in.

That is my opinion anyway, I have emailed some one who owns this stove to check for you.

Dan