Worked on the big hat some more tonight.
Used a piece of green abrasive pad, 320 grit paper, and Never Dull to clean up some more.
Got it all back together, pumped up great, hissed good, too (at least I think it sounded right). Forgot to take a pic.
Fueled it up and tried to do a test burn w/o mantles. I could see the flame of my barbeque lighter getting pushed around but it didn't light. Good thing, too, because I had a fuel leak from under the main valve collar. When I took it all apart initially I didn't see any evidence of any sealer on the threaded joints at the pipe threads at the font, but there may have been a little shellac or lacquer at the straight threads on the fitting with the little lifter lever (sorry, I don't know the proper part names yet). I guess they didn't have Teflon tape back in '54.
Also, I wasn't thrilled with how the alignment of the little jet cleaner rod crank ended up right on top of the main valve knob.
The greenie pad was probably a bad idea, as the grit from it made me nervous of a clog. So I checked everything thoroughly. I dropped the little generator spring before I even knew it was there... heard it hit the floor (I'm assuming that the emulsifier tube under the main valve is the generator, but I guess it could be the tube up in the burner tree that has the jet in it... I really should look at the parts exploded view some more!), and had to look for it then figure out where it came from. Lifts the generator rod when the main fuel valve is opened, right?
So I broke it all down, added some Teflon tape to the thread joints and put it back together. Checked everything at each step. Had fuel up thru the main valve, then up thru the cleaning rod lifter mechanism (I think
). The leak ended up being at the main valve stem packing; snugging the packing nut up fixed that. Checked the jet. The only thing that I did not take all the way apart was that little jet cleaner rod lift mechanism, but I did blow thru every part in the path and got flow through each part (very little thru the generator orifice and jet, but that is to be expected, and I did confirm fuel flow; at least thru the main valve, if not the lifter.
Got it all back together with no leaks and it still would not light. I thought maybe it wanted the mantles on it to help disperse the fuel vapors, but that didn't work and I am now regretting using a good set of my old style mantles w/o getting to the bottom of the fuel delivery problem.
What is the fibrous white looking tube that the jet cleaner rod rides in inside of the jet tube? Does that need to get saturated before fuel will come out of the burner tubes?
Hmm,
can't really remember if I was getting a good hiss at all after adding the fuel. I know I had it when tested empty.
Any thoughts or suggestions?