Decided to do another project today. This one I'll call Project 500A!
Started with a fairly decent 500A dated June of 1956:
Removed the four nuts that hold the grate to the burner plate:
Check the hole location where the "Light/Burn" lever comes through the frame rest and then remove the generator and valve assembly:
After removing the two screws that hold the burner plate to the fount, turn the plate over and remove the two screws holding the U-tube burner casting to the plate:
Next, remove the burner rings and air baffle from the U-tube burner casting:
Here's how the top of the fount looks without the burner assembly:
Next, remove the frame rest. The loop on the lever may need to be squeezed slightly to get it through the hole:
To remove the fuel pick-up assembly, one can use a wrench but it's easy to put the brass block in a bench vise and just turn the fount to loosen the valve. Just be sure to twist with even pressure on both sides of the fount so you don't "torque" it to one side:
This is what the valve assembly looks like once it's removed from the fount:
Here is the diasassembled stove:
The fount sans parts and before cleaning:
Time to start cleaning:
Starting with the burner rings, these are pretty easy to clean:
Just use a wire brush:
After the wire brush:
The generator and valve asembly can be cleaned with compressed air and steel wool. Forgot a close-up "after" picture of the generator:
Note above that the generator's needle assembly does not remvoe like a lantern generator. It is threaded into the valve.
Here's a picture of the fuel & air pick-up tube:
The block & needle assembly in the fuel & air tube works the same as when you open a lantern valve 1/4 turn to light it. The Burn/Light lever regulates the fuel when the stove is cold.
Next you see the torch burning out the old fuel cap gasket. For some reason when I first read this in Frank's lantern rebuild tutorials, I felt very intimidated. I bought a lot of one-piece caps instead of doing the torch thing. After doing one, it is pretty simple!
Here is the old cap gasket after it has become a burnt offering:
Here is my preffered tool to remove the burned out old gasket material:
Yes, a Swiss Army knife. Halfway done:
A new cap gasket and one installed on the cap insert:
Now, here's a shameless plug for Don Burchell's check valve removal tool:
Above, the airstem has been removed from the check valve (CV) and the skinny part of Don's removal tool is threaded into the CV. The larger shaft is slid down over the skinny part. The larger shaft has two prongs that go into the slots on the CV. The larger shaft is then tightened down with a nut on the skinney shaft.
The larger shaft has a place to use a wrench to loosen the CV, as can be seen in the next illustration:
Two more pictures of the business end of Don's removal tool:
The CV was stuck. A little Carb-out and compressed air made it work as good as new!
Next, you see the fuel & air assembly cleaned and ready to go back into the fount. But I put some Permatex on the threads before re-installing. The "Pros" have a difference of opinion on this subject. Some us it and some do not.
Here you see the F & A assembly in the cleaned & waxed fount:
The cleaning of the burner parts came out okay, but I wasn't totally happy with the rust removal product I used. So, all of the burner parts were painted with VHT brand high-heat paint. Be sure to follow the curing instructions on the VHT. It will work very well!
Here are all of the parts ready to be reassembled:
Here's a tip to save you some frustration; make sure the nut that connects to the generator is outside of the frame rest BEFORE you put the burner assembly back on the stove! See photo to see what I mean:
Pictures of Project 500A after her reassembly:
Now after all of this, does she work?
Well:
Yeah, hard to see in the light! So here's a few in the dark:
This next photo, the 500A in open full throttle:
Since this was only the second time I had used the VHT, I was wondering how the paint would hold up. I'd say not too bad:
Including the time it took for the VHT to cure, this was about a four hour project.
Thank you for looking!
Murff
This thread is locked!