Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion What pump is this really?

I picked up this pump the other day. I don't buy 60's style pumps but kind of liked this one. I know it was special made for Sinclair but the ID tag reads Bennett 966 with a tag over the top part that reads 2000 Series Sinclair. This is not the Bennett 966 I know but the pump does have a manual reset and the 40's - 50's style Veeder Root in it. Any ideas as I don't see it in the book.

That is a Universel Cabinet. They used other peoples guts....Cherokee is another cabinet maker

You better get that right leg fixed..looks worse than my bad one!! and thats not saying much...

Yeah that leg looks pretty bad and I never noticed it was that crooked LOL. Anyway I understand the universal cabnet but why the 966 tag on it??

polish that baby up and i think it would look real cool.esspecialy next to a 70s car.

Keithia,
Universel made the cabinet, and what you would do is take the guts out of a pump;
pumping unit, meter, computer and anything else you would need. You would use the original id tag off the pump you used the guts out of for ordering internal parts. You need to know who made the parts inside the pump, especially if you have to call a service man. He would need to know WHAT he is comming to work on. Not all attendants would know or care what the pumps were.
The tag is stamped 1000 which is the model # of the meter. I built a lot of Universel pumps when I rebuilt this junk for a living.
If you take note of the frame it usually has some "Home Made" looking parts. They made a killing selling these cabinets. They made them for Tokheim guts, Bennett guts, Southwest, G&B,etc.....

Oil co.s would have their owne shops that would update older pumps this way.It was cheaper than a new pump, but looked new.
Gulf in Atlanta had a shop that would send truckloads of S/W bezels and dial faces to APS in AL. APS(Anniston Pump Shop) would punch a $ hole in the dial face and paint them and repaint the bezels, Then they sent them back.
We were a stop in between for APS to pickup meters and nozzels from the shop I worked at in Lithia Springs, GA. That was over 25 yrs ago.

OK I got it now and never knew that. That is pretty slick the way they did that and saves some $$.

Cherokee cabinets look a lot like the Universel...somewhere I have a WOFFORD OIL
tag like that SINCLAIR tag.I have seen pumps like that with orange porcelain faces with 76 logo on it. I had some faces like the SINCLAIR faces. I covered the logo, sandblasted the porcelain off from around the edge...not too close...then cut out the logo, ground & sanded the edges and made a tiny SINCLAIR sign.
I think the Universel & Cherokee came with a base, frame, computer mount, sheet metal, light kit and some angle iron parts to use as mounts. You had to assemble the frame.
I remember building dual-pump-dual-product Bennetts, with valves.....2 motors, 2 pumping units, 2 meters, 2 computers with electric resets, and 3/8 and 1/4 valves to slow the flow before shutting off the pre-sale. That is some serious "CRAMAGE" into a cabinet base not much bigger than that one in your pic.

The lady that I bought this one from had a dual one also. SUPER HEAVY!! I passed on that one. Faces were painted and worn and didn't look as neat as this one.

Also kind of interesting that back then they kept the guts and junked the cabinet and now we keep the cabinets and junk the guts (at least I do).

Keith

[This message has been edited by keithia (edited 09-25-2007).]