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L Fire Engine Restoration


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A few places that you might be able to find more detail on the gold leaf.  Of course the Mack museum.  Also the Gettysburg FD right up the road from you had a similar L.... Their museum may have pictures of it.  Jere Lady of Lady & Taylor in Heidlersburg just north of Gettysburg bought that rig in the late '90s but unfortunately last I heard it burned up in a barn fire.  Jere is a wealth of Mack knowledge and may be able to help regardless.

Ed Smith

1957 B85F 1242 "The General Ike"

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38 minutes ago, 609albert said:

Your Mack is a classic ,the molded in roof lights are one of a kind, how could anyone scrape its twin? I would love to see the Mack when you get it done,where in pa.are you? (MACK Capital of the World)

It’s especially a shame because not only did it have the molded roof lights, it was a 3 door sedan cab. I haven’t quite given up hope on it yet, but all sources lead to it ending up with a scrap dealer. Hopefully he knew what he had and atleast kept the body around. Actually both my engines are Fredrick, MD engines and have stayed in the vicinity since delivery. They both had twins that are untraceable.

Who needs a back yard when you could have a :mack1: Yard?!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Well I’ve been so busy these past few weeks that nothing much has been done. We plan on putting the fuel pump back in ASAP which if it isn’t tomorrow won’t be until sometime next week. Some work needs to be done pretty quickly because it almost become a tradition at this point to take one of them to the school dances over at the local art high school, give everyone something cool to look at. This homecoming was the homecoming king and his gang making a grand entrance, we’ll see about this year replacing the CF with the old L. If that goes well we have a few shows that are relatively close we’re going to try to take them both to and if that all works out you can expect to see them relatively often at shows along the east coast.

Right now the goal is to get it running and then re wire the driver side headlight which currently doesn’t have any power going to it. Wish us luck. Enjoy some old pictures I’ve found of the two.

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Who needs a back yard when you could have a :mack1: Yard?!

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Long story short the L runs again but the fender had to be removed so we could actually get to what we needed to. It’s looking like another year before all the kids see it. We’ll see how progress is in a few months and see if she’ll be at any shows this year or hold off again. We don’t want to risk damaging anything so it’ll go when it’s ready.

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Who needs a back yard when you could have a :mack1: Yard?!

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  • 1 month later...

Well I figured I’d get on here and give an update as to what’s going on with the L. The update is essentially there is no update. We tried buying a new fuel pump but it goes on a different type of the 707 so it was backwards and the arm that hits the crankshaft wasn’t long enough. We threw the old one back in and sure enough it leaked, so we sent it out to be rebuilt. We got it back about a week and a half ago, so we threw it in and after hours of trying it kept fighting us to get on the crankshaft. So we stopped and had a break and before you knew it we’re on a plane to Florida. We wanted to take it to the Chesapeake Antique Fire Apparatus Association annual muster but it’s still missing a fender and a functioning fuel system, not to mention the fact we got back home at 4:00AM this morning so just the CF went. We were in a little parade getting there. I have a couple more recent pictures of the two. We’re hoping to be at Pump Primers with the two but it doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen. Only time will tell.

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If anyone has any tips on how to get the fuel pump back in the right spot in such a fashion that it doesn’t require throwing tools across the garage in anger because it’s come off it’s place again, that would be phenomenal. Once that’s done we’ll be checking the pump to make sure that still moves because a restoration TV show has us paranoid after their having to completely disassemble a pump for a restoration due to it rusting in place. It’s be nice to have it pumping at Pump Primers but at this point just having it there is the stretch goal.

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Who needs a back yard when you could have a :mack1: Yard?!

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Rotate the engine by hand until you get the low spot of the eccentric on the cam aligned with the pump arm,  you will be able to see and feel it when you spin it and hold the pump in position. It will than fit close enough to run the bolts in.

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"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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On 6/2/2019 at 12:23 AM, CaptainCrutch said:

Well I figured I’d get on here and give an update as to what’s going on with the L. The update is essentially there is no update. We tried buying a new fuel pump but it goes on a different type of the 707 so it was backwards and the arm that hits the crankshaft wasn’t long enough. We threw the old one back in and sure enough it leaked, so we sent it out to be rebuilt. We got it back about a week and a half ago, so we threw it in and after hours of trying it kept fighting us to get on the crankshaft. So we stopped and had a break and before you knew it we’re on a plane to Florida. We wanted to take it to the Chesapeake Antique Fire Apparatus Association annual muster but it’s still missing a fender and a functioning fuel system, not to mention the fact we got back home at 4:00AM this morning so just the CF went. We were in a little parade getting there. I have a couple more recent pictures of the two. We’re hoping to be at Pump Primers with the two but it doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen. Only time will tell.

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 So, is Engine 51 the TV star from EMERGENCY ?

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Edited by 41chevy

"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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10 minutes ago, CaptainCrutch said:

I last heard it was a tribute rig. Maybe though, if it was that’d make it even more spectacular that they parked us next to it.

I believe the original is in the LA fire museum. 

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4 minutes ago, h67st said:

When I was a kid, I never missed Emergency...one of my very favorite shows. If I had a dime for every time I heard Dr. Brackett tell the boys to start an IV with Ringer's Lactate...

Or say "Rampart".....

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Dog.jpg.487f03da076af0150d2376dbd16843ed.jpgPlodding along with no job nor practical application for my existence, but still trying to fix what's broke.

 

 

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Nice rig I hope you get it on the road in time to make it to the September show in Winchester. If you are still looking to get the gold leaf done for the fenders I'd check with Larry Spangler in Hanover, PA. (717) 637-6990

 

Money, sex, and fire; everybody thinks everyone else is getting more than they are!

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We’re gonna hold off on doing any paint for a while, one day we’ll make it as close to factory paint as possible but for now we like the story that the messy cracking paint gives. Right now though things are looking up for shows, still not giving any definites right now, because who know what else can and will go wrong.

Who needs a back yard when you could have a :mack1: Yard?!

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I'm definitely following this, great thread!  Are you doing the work yourself? 

I bought a 1949 L95 that belonged to my department from 49-mid 80s.  It sat outside for the last 20yrs but "supposedly" ran when parked.  It needs a lot.  I was a mechanic before I got on the FD, and still do it part time, but have little experience with the big trucks (although the older ones seems fairly straightforward).  I'm definitely going to be picking your brain, thanks for posting! 

It looks like you have the 707 as well?  How has that been trying to source parts?  I think I may have a cracked head, and I know I need a new exhaust manifold. 

Here's mine as we found her sitting in the woods in NH.

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We’re doing most of the work by ourselves, but in the winter we took her to have a top end engine rebuild. We found most of the parts and a lot of it was asking around, finding leads, and one of our biggest part providers was a donor engine we found close to us surprisingly. But we exhausted a lot of the parts people had and the heads themselves had to be machined by a guy the mechanic knew. We’re thinking about taking it back there so they can fix the carb which has an issue getting fuel to the engine in the higher RPMs which means that you can only drive it for maybe 15 minutes before it stalls, and we know it’s not another fuel leak. It’s mostly tuning at this point. Having it at Pump Primers is the goal but chances the truck makes it are slim. Another part we’ll need is the fitting for the aux nozzle because the bottom has rusted away, and the pump needs a good clean out, but it pumps, you just need to have water in the tank, so there’s a positive.

Who needs a back yard when you could have a :mack1: Yard?!

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A side note, at the CAFAA muster they take pictures of all the rigs as they come in and someone finally posted one of ours in that spot. Still looking for pictures of IHC’s old 1954 Mack LS-85 sedan cab pumper. Any pictures of any IHC engines are very much appreciated. Just trying to develop an album in case they come up in the future so I don’t make the same mistake as we did when the 54 came up for sale and we missed ignored it not realizing at first that it was in fact the truck that we were looking for. Still praying it’s out there but all the leads have run dry, and have lead to it being scrapped unfortunately. Quite a shame.

Anyways enjoy a picture of the CF

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Who needs a back yard when you could have a :mack1: Yard?!

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