I've got a nearly-unused Auto-Fab military lantern from 1967. Paint, labels, etc. are all excellent, but the lantern tends to leak around the generator, near the top. Anyone know anything about these particular lamps, please?
Allen, Mil Specs are a breed of their own. Can be very testy....each being a little different than the next. You have to feel em out. They don't like a lot of pressure when first lighting. Start with about 12 pumps. Open valve very slowly and just enough to get the mantle to lite. It will want to spit and sputter and glow orange/yellow and flare up for a minute or two. When she smooths out open the valve a bit more and give some more pressure. It will want to repeat its "finikyness"?? Spit/sputter/glow/flare and will smooth out again. Open valve all the way. I always start mine with the vent & globe section (Quad) or globe off...then reassemble and they always seem to run best when reassembled.Once she smooths out and is "roaring" and giving nice white light give it another 20 pumps and it will run all day. You can take that gen off and make sure the tip is threaded on tight. Another thing to look for is to make sure that the gen tube and tip are shooting straight down into the mantle tube instead of aiming at the wall. These aluminum gens bend easy and sometimes are a bit tricky to get aligned, both in the top burner hole and at the bottom where the flare and compression nut attach at the valve. I have had 2 of my mil-specs running for the last 2 days. It's cold and they help take the edge off. I think i I have about 12-13 of these...all different mfgr's. They just take a bit of patience...but I've yet to have one that I can't get to run. A lot of guys give up too easy on them. Have fun with 'em Glenn
Yeah. A decent working condition example can be a good light although they are tricky to fire up. Some of the later examples are real dogs though as witness the one we measured at a stunning 5 candle power. They are a low pressure lamp and if you over pump they will dump free fuel from the gas tip. The generators are aluminium and can crack but more importantly if you take a blow lamp anywhere near them they melt. You need to examine the generator carefully to see if it is sound and maybe do a test with it. If you can fit the generator to a lamp valve and without any fuel pump and pressurise the generator and shove it in water. That will show you any leaks from strange places. Mostly you can't fettle the generators though so if you have a damaged one it means a replacement. Lighting them is a pain. 12 pump strokes, crack the valve a quarter turn and light the mantle. It will splutter and flare for a while but when it settles open the valve full when it will again splutter and flare. When it settles again give another 12 pump strokes which will make it flare and such again until eventually it will give a decent light or mostly they do but see the 5 cp mentioned above. ::Neil::
Glenn and Mack, Thanks for this info. When things thaw a bit (ice storm here in Mississippi right now)I'll try it again with lower pressure, and more patience. Thanks!
Mil-spec's are kinda like hookers, everybody would like one but no one wants to admit liking them. Dan
