Project 621B

[BobA]

Today we will refurbish a Canadian great! The 621B!

A quick look at the subject:





Needs some work, but overall, not terrible. Let's get started!

First, remove the bail by pulling the ends apart, and lifting away from the vent.



Lift off the vent...




...and the globe.



This lantern has a spark lighter on it, so I'll have to remove it.



Loosen the nut under the bracket until it drops out of the threads.




Now loosen the screw on the knob, and remove the knob. Then slide the whole thing out of the bracket, and out.




Now, lift out the heat shield.



Loosen & remove the frame nut...




...and remove the lighter bracket.



Lift and remove the burner frame.




Now, loosen and remove the generator nut...






...and the generator.


Remove the knob screw...



...and the knob.




Then lift off the collar.



Now we can unscrew and remove the frame stud.




Removing the pump, in the usual way:





This poor thing looks like it spent the last two decades in a desert! The cup is as stiff and dry as a bone!



But a little soak in oil takes care of it and makes it as good as new!



Now, we need to remove the valve from the fount. I'm not sure of this material on the joint. There is this white flaky material on the outside, along with a gray, cement-like material on the inside. It seems to me that perhaps, the gray material is the thread sealer, while the white stuff might be the result of a dissimilar metal corrosion (aluminum valve body in a steel fount), but I'm not sure of this at all.



Here is the spring clip. This retains the valve stem in the valve body, and also works with the knob to provide the OFF-LIGHT-ON stops of the valve.




We remove it by working on both the top & bottom, gently, with needlenose pliers. Work it one step at a time over the ridges on the valve body, until it comes off.





The stem can now be pulled out, while twisting back-and-forth.






Put the valve body into a vice and snug it up (not too tight, as aluminum bends easily). Then evenly twist the fount counter clockwise to loosen the valve from it. BE SURE TO COUNT THE EXACT NUMBER OF TURNS NEEDED TO REMOVE THE VALVE! You'll need this later when you reinstall the valve.






Since the F/A tube has no provision for a wrench, I used a rubber strap wrench to loosen & remove it.




Remove it gently to avoid bending the F/A rod shown here.


Here is the disassembled valve. You can see that there are 2 o-rings. These should both be replaced, even if they seem to be in good condition. They are known to have a high failure rate.




Now, on to the burner. Remove the burner tube screw...



...and remove the burner tube by simultaneously pulling & twisting.

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Unscrew the burner cap from the tube.



Here is the entire lantern disassembled and after a good cleaning of all the parts. To summarize the cleaning processes:

1) All brass parts went into a lemon juice bath and scrubbed with an old toothbrush (soak time dependent on need). Then, rinsed thoroughly with hot water, dried, then polished lightly with 0000 steel wool.

2) Steel parts went into a separate lemon juice soak. Rinsed & dried. Used steel wool and dremel tool brushes as needed, to remove rust & carbon.

3) Aluminum parts.

a) Collar - Washed with soap & water and dried. Then polished with Mothers polish.

b) Valve body - First, I removed the remnants of the old sealer by chipping away at it, and then used a brass Dremel brush to clean out the threads (VERY gently & carefully, to avoid damaging the delicate aluminum threads). Sprayed inside & out with Gumout (carburetor cleaner spray).

4) Fount - This was very clean on the inside, so I just rinsed it out with Coleman Fuel and dumped it out. The fount label was missing, but, unfortunately, the adhesive wasn't. It took me about an hour with some Goof-Off, to remove the old adhesive. I then rinsed with water, dried, and went over the paint with a mixture of rubbing compound & Formula 409.

5) Vent - This was particularly sooty, some was soft, but most was hard carbon & very difficult to remove. First, I washed thoroughly with soap & water. I then used razor blades and denatured alcohol to attack & remove the carbon. Took a while, but it came out nicely.




Now, we'll start to reassemble the valve. Here are the new o-rings below the old ones.



Install the o-rings in their correct places, one on the eccentric block and one on the valve stem, as shown here.



I applied a small amount of silicone brake grease (hi-temp) to the eccentric block o-ring, and inserted it into the valve body.




Look through the valve stem port and make sure that the eccentric block is installed squarely and not cocked in either direction, as shown.



Apply grease to the valve stem o-ring...




...and insert the stem into the valve body.



Gently push the stem in, while twisting back and forth. You will need to make sure that the pin on the stem drops into the slot in the block. You will feel this happen, and the stem will be flush with the valve body, as shown. Twisting the stem will now make the eccentric block move up and down, as it should.



Now we put some thread sealer (I use Permatex #2) on the F/A tube threads, carefully insert it over the F/A rod, and screw it into the valve body.







I used the rubber strap wrench to tighten the F/A tube to the valve body. Here is the assembled valve.



Put some thread sealer on the threads of the valve, place it in the fount, and screw it in.




Screw it in the same number of turns as you counted when you removed the valve.



You'll probably have to finish tightening by clamping the valve in a vise, as you did for removal. Here is the valve reinstalled completely.



Reinstall the frame stud.



Snap the spring clip onto the valve body and seat it completely, as shown.





Reinstall the pump.


On to the generator. Here it is apart & clean.




It originally had a long paper (or asbestos or whatever) tube over the spring, but, by the time I got the innards out of this generator, the tube came out destroyed. So I used some bronze wool...



...and wound it over the spring with the cleaning rod inside.



Insert this assembly into the generator.



Now, I install the collar.




Now - the generator...



and the nut.




Tightening the nut.


We now assemble the burner. Screw the burner cap tightly (by hand) onto the burner tube.

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Insert & press the burner tube into the burner frame...



...making sure that the screw holes align, as shown below.



Now, insert & tighten the burner tube screw.




Lower the burner assembly onto the collar...




...being sure that the generator enters its proper place in the burner, as shown.




Install the frame nut...



...and tighten.



Install the knob on the valve stem.




Install & tighten the screw.



Replace the heat shield.




Tie on a new #11 mantle (or in this case, a Peerless #111 mantle)..



Unfortunately, this mantle draped heavily on the heat shield, so I removed the shield before burning the mantle in. as shown below.



Let's try the heat shield again! That's better.



Now the globe -



and the vent & bail.


This completes the mechanical assembly of the 621B. Here it is, burning brightly:



Now, to finish the restoration, I bought a nice replacement fount label. Here is the lantern, back to its original state.









Another fun project completed!

THE END


BobA

[nomis1]

Another fantastic and thorough tutorial, Bob. Thanks!

[Northman49]

Nice job..just did one similar last week. I didn't know the Canadian Labels were available...OCP?

[PetroMax]

Great restoration and excellent tutorial.

[Newfie]

user pawnitoff on ebay.

Northman49 wrote: Nice job..just did one similar last week. I didn't know the Canadian Labels were available...OCP?

[Majicwrench]

You forgot to put the sparky back in!!

[Rhubarb]

Nicely done, Bob!

[Murff]

Majicwrench wrote: You forgot to put the sparky back in!!

He didn't forget!

Murff

[JohnnyMac]

Great instructions and photos. Thank yoiu for documenting the procedure. Just disassembled a 222 today, and it looks like this tutorial is about 95% applicable to a 222 refurb.

[MotorcycleDan]

That came out great! It looks like it just came off the line and is ready for a box!

[Matt98B5]

Nice work! I am amazed at your patience, because this project probably took 3x as long with taking all the pictures, then you had to write the post and organize all the pics!

[paulzarr]

Great work Bob. I have a 621B 'moose turd' too, and I have wanted to rebuild for years. Runs OK but not great. Now I have a solid guide to follow. Thanks.

[NickelFount]

Great restoration. Looks like new! I always take too long getting to the newer ones .. always hoping I'll find that un-fired one before I have to do all that work.

Edit.. by the way how do you keep your fingers so damn clean working on a lantern? mine are usually the color of your lantern!

[BobA]

Thanks for all the compliments, guys!

Now, by the numbers...

Northman49 wrote:
Nice job..just did one similar last week. I didn't know the Canadian Labels were available...OCP?

As Shane said, I got it from eBay's pawnitoff, aka Jim Hogg, who is also a member here.

Murff wrote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Majicwrench
You forgot to put the sparky back in!!

He didn't forget!

Right you are, Murff!

I didn't forget - I just don't really care for these "sparkies". In my view, they ruin the look of a lantern. Also, they light better with a standing flame than with a spark (and with less of that 'WHOOMPH', as well)!

JohnnyMac wrote:
it looks like this tutorial is about 95% applicable to a 222 refurb.

Pretty much the same, just a lot less bulky!

NickelFount wrote:
by the way how do you keep your fingers so damn clean working on a lantern? mine are usually the color of your lantern!

Ken,

I keep a clean rag nearby, on which I'm always wiping my hands. I also wash them frequently during the process. I do this, mainly, in order to keep from getting all this crud into the workings of my camera. It's a bit of a pain to be so meticulous about it, but I figure that soap & water is a lot cheaper than a new camera!


Thanks again, guys!

BobA

[SCOTTY]

Thanks Bob! Great tutorial with great, focused, clear pictures. Textbook quality stuff.

[Newfie]

Bob, I forgot to mention that I'm happy you ended up with this from me. I would never have cleaned it up so nicely.

[BobA]

Thanks, guys! I really appreciate the kind words!





Bob

[SweetD]

Bravo, great write-up to follow along for an amateur (with great aspirations) like myself!

Thanks!

Dave

[Bill]

Bob: This is a fantastic post, and timely too. I'm rehabbing a similar lantern and I've learned quite a bit from your great tutorial and photos. I'm also glad to see that the decals are still available. Thanks for posting this. I hope the mods will eventually add this to the Technical Assistance Archives.

[wpnaes]

Much appreciated Bob!