Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Do you Leave the Innternals in?

I understand the wisdom of leaving the pump and other heavy internal parts in a visible pump to provide stability. What about an electric pump? I am doing a couple of M&S pumps and I am planning to take out the heavy parts and just leave the parts that will be seen from the outside. Is that a mistake?

Thanks,

Doc

Simple answer....No...more complicated answers will follow.

Jim

When restoring a pump for a customer, I always let them make that choice but for me I remove the inners on the electric pumps.
They always are easier to move around and I figure if it's not going to be used to pump gas again why leave it there cause you cannot see it anyway. I do have a MS 80 thats outside in front of one of my buildings that still has all it's inners in it. I left it completed for two reasons, one because the farmer I bought it from had power washed all the inners and painted them silver and then put the skins back on and brush painted it red so it's a good looking original. And the second reason if anyone ever wanted to steal it, they better bring a number of friends to lift it!!!
Choice is still yours and once it's restored, I don't think anyone will care either way.

Mike Matteson

I take them out. But, if I was displaying one outside, I would leave them in, even though that won't deter someone from stealing it. If I can load a pump by myself with the guts in then anyone can. You definitely want to secure it with m ore than the weight.

I always gut electric pumps out. As a bonus, you will get about $30-$40.00 for the scrap cast iron, copper, brass and aluminum.

I say leave em alone,especially if your speculating that the next owner doesn't want them in.
I'll easily pay more then $30-$40 to obtain the original lower guts inside my pump today.And easily walk away from one that doesn't,to one that does.
In general,pumps came 2 ways,with lower intestines/pump/valves intact to pump the gas directly out of the ground.
Or remote,meaning the were nearly empty down below with just a valve & intestine and had a line running to a motor/pump stored elsewhere.Either way,whatevers down below,should be left in.
If your pump was one of the few that had all the valves,intestines & motor installed below,feel fortunate and privileged,as they all didn't.
Too many people have been gutting pumps,due to smell & weight alone,and not realizing they are not helping the hobby,just their lower backs.
If being stored outside,they do help weigh it down during a tornado,and detour theft too,not to mention it shows them in their true working armour.
Guts won't help prevent a pump from being stolen if a thief is really determined,but they sure make it more difficult & time consuming for him to take,and the get away that much more slower.
Leave em in and make him go after one w/o the guts further down the street.God knows they're out there..Pumps w/o guts today,easily exceed the ones with.
10 years ago,no one was saving/restoring modern day electric pumps..now look where we are.
10 years from now,there will be a section on this website titled,"Show us your pump guts".

Nope. They always stink and leak. They will leak onto your floor, ruining your carpet or tile. You will not believe how much dirty fuel comes out as you gut the pump. In my experience, no matter how long a pump has been out of service they ALWAYS have fuel trapped inside them.

I can relate to the smell issue. One of my pumps came from Minnesota and I brought it home in the back of a P3 Orion airplane. When we got back to California on final approach in a thunderstorm, we smelled a strong gas smell. When I looked back, the entire inside of the airplane was wet with very old and bad smelling gas. I was sure that it was completely empty before I put it in the airplane. Boy was I wrong! Fortunately, there were no sparks. Thanks again for all of the great advice. I am leaning toward taking the inside stuff out of my pumps.

Thanks,

Doc

I do not like having the guts in them. All my pumps that have easy opening doors are used for storage. Some have shelves added. It works out nice when space is limited.

I want my pumps with the guts.

Leave the guts in them.

I really suppose this is a toss-up issue that could be debated indefinitely. I cant tell you how many times I've had a 50's Bennett or Tokheim gush out a few gallons of nasty smelling red fuel everywhere and I was real happy to kiss those guts goodbye. However, I've also had pumps on the rare side that will say "Milestone" or "American Pump & Tank Company" written in the cast iron and I never pitch that stuff! I just make sure the insides are drained/flushed out, then sandblasted and painted a dull black. MMatteson is right, I let my customers decide. If its going in a showroom or dealership, they come out. I don't wanna be responsible or held liable for a ruined floor. Goober

All of my pumps except visibles are gutted wheather they are in the house or in the yard . Mainly because i move them around often and it makes them alot easier to move but thats just me.

I restored a Tok. 39 lo boy , and painstakingly restored the guts, people like the short history lesson on how they use to work, when i show them the pump. i weighed each part putting it back together and i think it is 435 lbs or 465 something like that. (and no, it doesn't smell like gas anymore) I've only had to move it once , but when i did i disassembled it all. Because your much more likely to damage a restored pump if its 400+ lbs. My other 1940-50's pumps i stripped them to the bone. for reasons stated above. So, I would say keep one with the guts and strip the rest in your colection. I show people the inside of the 39 and the rest of the pumps they don't ask (or probably don't care) to see in the inside of the others. i just say the other pumps are empty and that doesn't seem to bother them. besides they all used pretty much the same guts.