Dad's Coleman Camp Stove 502 Part 1

This is the camp stove from Dad's barn.  I remember this from the basement in Ohio on top of the brick ledge over 30 years ago, and have not seen it since. Until now.

It is a Coleman 502 camp stove that uses white gas for fuel. I believe this stove was made in 1966.  There are decades worth of dust and dirt to clean.  Here are some pics before the cleaning process...

To the internet!  There is an excellent forum post called Project 502 that describes in detail how to take the stove apart.  

I followed his method and the dissasembly went smoothly.  Despite the dirt and minor rust, all the screws and fittings came out easily.  The removal of the lower burner part required a special tool with very wide jaw.  I do not have an oil filter wrench, so I used a jar opener that was in Dad's kitchen.  Worked perfectly.

Some more pics of taking it apart...

And finally, all the pieces laid out...

I did not remove the check valve.  I tried, but a screwdriver was not going to get it without damaging it.  So instead I left it in place, squirted some carb cleaner in the plunger hole and let it sit for a couple of hours.  There is a BB sized ball that now moved freely with gravity when I tilted the fount.  (Hard to see it move, I just noticed the position of the ball changed slightly).  I also did not remove the valve assembly from the fount and I did not use any cleaner inside the valve assembly nor the fount where the fuel goes.   (just in case, fount = green tank).


The other pieces needed to be cleaned.   To remove the rust, I used the aluminum foil method I described using on my flashlight post.  Here you can see half way through the rust removal process on the burner bowl just using aluminum foil and water.

There is a leather plunger used to create air pressure.  The leather was in great shape.  The neatsfoot oil came from dad's barn too.

 I lightly sanded to screws to make them look nice.

I used steel wool on the brass, and my dremel brass wheel on the very rusted burner plate shown in the pic above with the screws.  For everything else, I used a rag and Eagle One Wipe and Shine Detailing Spray that is safe for chrome and clear coat.  Its what I had close at hand, but any general purpose cleaner would have been fine.  I applied car wax to the fount.  D cleaned the grill with dish soap.

Here are all the pieces after being cleaned...

Putting the unit back together was straightforward.  So here are the results...

See Part 2 for lighting and operating this cool little stove for the first time in 30 years.