ff6cav

We were just in Hillsboro this past week visiting my wife's family!  Maybe I can convince her to go back up this weekend 

Thanks for the research and advice; I'm planning on going tomorrow to a custom exhaust place here in Gettysburg to see what they say as far as a quote and go from there.  

4 hours ago, fxfymn said:

Maybe a custom made header style manifold would work better?

That thought had crossed my mind, too

Did a little paint work over the last few days on the pieces of the dog box.  Still scouring the interwebs for a replacement exhaust manifold

8 hours ago, Loadstar said:

I would look for a replacement manifold....I had several people try welding mine, and each time it got progressively worse. 

10-4 on that, any suggestions on where to look? Nothing on ebay at the moment, and can't think of where to look locally other than Cal Little

Some more progress over the last few days.  The exhaust manifold is off after a lot of sweat, heat, PB Blaster, and more than a few choice words directed at the rig!  Some of the nuts are a huge pain in the @$$ to access to try to remove!  The manifold was a little worse than originally thought, with 7 of the ears cracked all the way through.  I have a guy who says he can weld it, but he advised that I would probably be better off trying to find a good used one first, so with that said, I'm in the market for a 707 exhaust manifold.  I also plan to replace the right side spark plugs and at least some of the plug wires while the manifold is off; at least one was bad from the exhaust leak blowing directly on it for the last year and a half(and who knows how long before I got it), and we accidentally lit one on fire while working on the manifold 

Started the process today of removing the exhaust manifold so I can get it fixed.  Soaked the nuts with PB blaster, and got 3 of them off before I had to go to work tonight.  1 whole stud came out, 1 just the nut came off(used some heat on that one), and 1 the stud broke off; there is enough sticking out that I should be able to get it out after I get the whole manifold off.  

Also a few days ago, I began prepping to paint some of the parts around the dog box, this is an in-progress shot

Today, I acquired a set of hose reels, thanks to @Mike Rugh!

1 hour ago, 41chevy said:

Try a hot rod or speed shop for  AN fittings.

That appears to be the solution, thank you!

So in attempting to cap off the heat exchanger, I've found that nobody seems to carry fittings that fit those size lines.  I believe they are 7/16", because 3/8 is too small and 1/2 is too big, but can't find the correct size anywhere- advance auto, autozone, napa, even tried lowes and home depot in the plumbing section.  I was hoping to do the same thing as I did for the drain lines, cap it off with unions and plugs.  Anybody else done this before or have any insight?

I spent this afternoon working on taking out the lines for the heat exchanger and removing the broken drain lines for the pump.  The drain lines had already been isolated and capped off at the pump.  One of them had 2 holes, and the other had 1, it appears that they  had frozen at one time and split.  

On 7/5/2016 at 7:07 PM, 1958 F.W.D. said:

Correct. And the tow operator apparently thought "oh, ok....shaft not connected to the transmission, I'm ok...." Hooked on, went down the road and physics did the rest. 

 

It's a shame that a momentary lapse in judgement meant the end for such a nice and apparently well-maintained rig

On 7/3/2016 at 8:45 PM, 609albert said:

 

Word is, the original breakdown was the short drive shaft breaking

According to comments on the original post, the driveshaft was not properly secured before towing and broke loose, breaking the pump, tank, and flaying the frame rails.

Got the primer put back together yesterday, and the motor back on today with a new solenoid, and the primer works great.  I tested it out by drafting out of a small kiddie pool at my parent's house, and it pulled a prime in less than 10 seconds using 1 section of hard sleeve on the 4-1/2" intake, but couldn't keep primed for more than a few seconds.  My thoughts on the lack of prime are this:

1. There are 2 pump drain lines that are cracked and leaking at a steady rate (water running out), which would introduce air into the pump and disrupt the draft

2. The cap on the 2-1/2" suction was not the same threads as the collar and was only on by about 1-2 threads, which resulted in a bad seal.  The ball valve on that suction was also leaking.

3. After I packed everything up, I double checked all of the discharge/intake caps, and found a few that were not as tight as they should be.

4. The kiddie pool wasn't very deep/big

I wasn't expecting it to hold a prime, since to my knowledge it's been around 10 years since it drafted, and was mostly drafting just to make sure the primer would do its job.  At least now I know what else I need to work on!

Short video of the drafting attempt:

https://www.facebook.com/896316497056489/videos/1160698303951639/

11 hours ago, fxfymn said:

I would not. The lines are pressurized by the pump to whatever pressure the pump is developing. A broken rubber line whipping around at 200 psi is not what you want.

Good point!

On 6/22/2016 at 9:36 PM, kevink1955 said:

The valve with the black handle and the 1/4" copper lines is the Master Pump Drain valve.  The copper lines run to all the low points on the pump and allow it to be drained to prevent a freeze up in cold weather.  If the pump was not drained the lines may have split from a freeze up.

I would not rely on the master drain that has not been maintained in years to drain a pump for winter storage

That makes sense now, thank you!  Would there be anything wrong with replacing the copper lines with, say, rubber fuel line?

3 hours ago, 609albert said:

where are you in pa.    Delaware Valley?

Negative, Susquehanna Valley- Gettysburg area

A little bit of progress from yesterday:

New Victaulic clamp on the front intake piping

Loaded some "new" hose that I acquired from the Bendersville Fire Co.  150' dead load 3", (2) 200' 1-3/4" attack lines, additional 50' of 3" in the compartment

Shot of my little helper; he doesn't like to sit still very long!

On 6/8/2016 at 0:40 PM, General Ike said:

Is that one of Medic 28's old rigs that Hampton is running as a QRS or Duty Ride?

I checked with one of their members and that is correct

On 6/11/2016 at 0:05 PM, GA_Dave said:

Engine 25-1, Heidlersburg, PA

1965 Mack C-125/1990 Pennsylvania Fire Apparatus refurb (Mack CF cab)

1250/700

Now retired and privately owned by the owner of PA Fire Apparatus

As a supplemental question in reference to the primer- would it hurt anything to soak it with rust penetrant to see if that would break it free?  I really don't want to take it apart if I don't have to