Painting - primer trouble

Hello
I pulled wall paper off the kitchen with ease. I then sanded the surface with medium grit using my random orbital sander. After I swept the wall down I applied Zinsser's primer called Bullseye 123. I have always had success with it. When I rolled it on, the strangest thing happened. It did not want to roll on and became gooey. I did about 6 sq. feet and had to stop. I waited a bit but it looked so lumpy I had to srape it off with my sheet rock knife and it came off in sheets.
Did I bump into shellac or lacquer? I'm at a loss as to what to do with this mess.
Any help would really be appreciated. BTW, I think the wallcovering was prepasted vinyl.
Thank you
Peter

i'm no expert, but when you "pulled the wallpaper off", you really just pulled the face of the wallpaper off. now you have to rewet with water and dishsoap,the wetter the better,wait a few minutes than start working with a 3" putty knife and your hands and pull the rest of the backing off. than with a solution of water and liquid fabric softener{downy}, again the wetter the better and either scrape with putty knife of scrub with scrubby. for better directions go to the wallpaper heading on this site and read the frequently asked questions. hope this helps till the experts read your post.

Wet enough is good enough. If the drywall is not sealed you will have major probs if you saturate it :wall: . Make sure it is sealed. then try wallpaper remover. Thats why they make it. This assumes the diagnosis is correct which it sounds like it is.

Yep to help diagnose the problem, definitely need to know if the paper backing is still on there, or it its the wall itself giving you the problem.

Thank you all for your replies.
I contacted Zinsser and the tech said I had two choices; 1-wet a small area at a time and scrape off the paste which is remaining and conflicting with the waterbased primer or apply an oil based primer. The scraping would be a lot of work for this old guy and there would be considerable damage to the sheetrock due to the water.
I'm going with the oil based primer. There is a good one called "cover stain" that sells for the same price as the water based one.
Thanx again and you can assume it works or I'll be back to let you know otherwise.
Peterr

I would still work on removing the paper backing. If the wall was properly prepped before the paper was hung, the backing will come off easily. Just take a spong and wet an area. Let the water soak in. Wet again and now strip the paper off.

while the wallpaper remover may or may not work, you still have to lay it on thick. i just removed wallpaper from my unsealed drywall using the instuctions i gave with no damage, except a couple of gouges with my putty knife. i've used the comercial stripper and it's no easier than the soap and water or the downy. just clean up after yourself as you go.

I rolled the oil based Zinsser on today with no problem-it is a primer sealer. I will roll a water based paint over it.
The trouble was that the sheetrock was never properly treated and someone just hung prpasted vinyl wall covering on the bare wallboard.
Aftr sanding and the oil based primer sealer I think all will be well.
Thank you for your advice and next time I may try water and ammonia. I hate the smell of oil based paints but it's a done deal. If I have a problem I'll come back to tell you.
Pete