Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion An ECO Question To The Membership

We have an ECO Tireflater. On the white face plate it states being made by (John Woods) Bennett of Canada. Both chrome plates that hold the frame and "air" glass are screwed (three circled in yellow) in though the front of the plates. We have seen many where the two plates show no screws. I wonder if this was just done on the Canadian made models or..????.

I believe those have been realized as a Canadian trate.

Yes, only Canadian meters had the screws going through the upper and lower trim pieces.

This was covered before.

It is my opinion this was done by a rebuilder not by ECO.

Reasons:
1. Why would ECO have two different ways to attach the chrome.
2. Why would ECO drill holes in some very nice looking chrome and put some stupid screws in them. It is like attaching chrome to your 1957 chevy with screws.
3. I have a great deal of ECO parts manuals, and nowhere does it state they offered chrome with holes in them, nor does any of their advertisement show this type of chrome.

The reason the rebuilder did this was to make it easier to replace the glass should it break.

Jack Sim

Makes sense to me Jack.
1969-72 Chevrolet vehicles assembled at GM's Oshawa Ontario Canada plant,were slightly different then cars built at GM's USA assembly plants during the same time frame.

Here's one that just sold out of Canada too.
Notice the ECO Toronto tag.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Eco-Air...=p2047675.l2557

That's cool. Here is my tag. Also the Canadian one on Ebay has a US face plate. Mine has a Canadian "John Wood" Bennett Pump Div. face plate similar to my back tag....???.

My opinions:

First of all, I was invited by the Bennett Pump Company, in 1996, when they closed their Muskegon, MI plant, to come there and go through their literature, they wanted to help me with as much as they could for my Gas Pump ID book.

I also got a great deal of literature about their ECO Air Meters. Not one piece of ECO literature mentioned anything different about the meter that was being sold in Canada.

Now for the opinions:

I believe all meters were made in Muskegon, none were made in Canada.
Those going to Canada were supplied with the Canadian a face plate and the ID tag stating Canadian.
None had holes in the chrome, as I stated above, this was done by a rebuilder.
All the parts for the ECOs were made by small machine shops in Michigan. I remember getting parts form ECO that were still packed in the original boxes that the machine shops used to send the parts to Muskegon. Why would Bennett have molds/parts made in Muskegon and then in Canada when it would be cheaper to just have them made in Michigan, then shipped to Canada?
I also have some that have stated they believe the main spring is different for the Canadian models, meaning there is one for psi and one for metric. It doesn't matter, the spring is the same, it is just a matter of calibration. Plus, not anywhere in any of the ECO literature I have does it mention a main spring for psi and one for metric, it is the same one.

This subject has come up about three times now, while I appreciate the Canadians thinking a piece of chrome with a screw going through it means the entire meter was made in Canada, I ask, do you really think this is good looking?

One more thing, there was a very large company in Hartford, CT, called PMP. They were a rebuilder of VR computers and ECO air meters. When they rebuilt the meter, they changed the face, putting on one that stated PMP, not John Wood/Bennett. They also had their own ID tag made, again stating PMP, not Wood/Bennett. Just because it has PMP on it, doesn't mean it wasn't made by Bennett.

Research before you make assumptions.

Jack Sim

Just pulled my Eco 97 out of storage and low and behold it's got 3 screws in faceplate as well! It's an S.S.E and came from the original owner and was never rebuilt or painted. Now the plot thickens !?!?!Lol

The front cover is also different on the ones I have had with screws.They have threaded inserts made(attached) to the inside of the cover so the trim could be removed without taking the covers off the meter.They were all Canadian.IMO they were that way from day one.Interesting topic.Thanks.Mark

Jack, research or not...you're also making an assumption.

In my opinion, as stated above they came originally with the screws through the chrome. However, I can agree with you that they look better without the screw heads showing.

Here's another assumption....

I've been in the petroleum equipment industrie for 30+ years..
In the early 80's, I worked for a contractor that serviced the Major Oil Companies such as Shell and Imperial Oil..

Repairing and rebuilding air meters was part of our service.
I dont know if the oil companies purchased their meters directly from the manufacturer or not, but it would make sense that they did (according to Jack's assumptions)because mostly all of them had to be taken apart to change the glass and re-install the chrome pieces from the inside.

On the other hand when we serviced Independants, many of the chrome pieces were installed with the screws on the outside, which leads me to believe that these meters were purchased from a rebuilder such as PMP.

These are just assumptions, but from my experience, Jack's theories are correct.

Those little inserts that are in the holes on the front covers are called Nutserts. I still have the complete set with the tool used to insert them, I used to use it all the time when I was assembling kit cars back in the late 70s and early 80s.

Jack Sim

First, I'm sorry if this has been raised three times already. Being new I had no idea. Back in the early '80's I had three of these ECO's. They were free for the taking as service stations were removing them to modernize. My Wife and I only kept the one and I believe all had the three screws on the face. This one came from a now gone Shell station. The station owner gave me the tools to disconnect it and place in my car. The other two also came from actual stations.
However, this does not mean that these units had not been serviced or put into reuse during all that time.
I have removed the top plate (it's been many years..LOL!!) and you can clearly see the threading on the back for the use of two "internal" mounting screws. I believe Jack is correct in his opinion. The giveaway is clear.....they drilled the center hole though the part number, effacing it . No factory would have done such a thing. In fact, "if" a center hole was part of the original design.....the part number would have been placed elsewhere. I guess..... many units were altered from the time they were new to the time they retired. I have to add....the screws don't bother me any...LOL!!!

esso guy,

If you plan to restore your unit back to the way it looked when it left the factory take a look at the parts we have available:

http://petrolianacollectibles.com/eco%2090%20parts.htm

Jack Sim