Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Picking up my first pump this week

As the title says, I'm going to pick up my first pump this week. I have an Eco air meter that I've restored, but this will be my first time playing with a pump. It's a Gilbarco, but I don't know which model. If anyone has any advice on which it is, roughly what I should be paying and whether it looks complete from the pics, I would be very grateful. I'm planning on a full restoration with the addition of a globe with Mobil branding. Thanks for any and all advice/comments!

Looks to be a 904-906? Hose cover on side is not correct but over the years, repair parts could have been substituted? Jack's book says $550?

It is now to late, you have been infected. That is nice looking pump. Can't wait to see it fully restored.

Thanks for the reply. I'm getting it for $900, but it seems that they're worth enough restored that I hopefully won't be "up-side down" once I'm done. Like my Eco air meter tho, I don't think this is something I'd ever sell. On another note, how heavy are these things? I'm planning on bringing a friend to pick it up - is that likely enough? Two middle aged, slightly (okay, mostly) soft guys should be able to handle moving it?

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Hey Brian, I sent you a Private Message PM click on the flashing envelope in the upper right corner of your home page. Welcome to OG. Neil

Pumps are very heavy and a real struggle for one person. Two of you should be OK, but the pump is still heavy. This is one of the reasons collectors strip the working mechanisms (guts) from them. Hopefully yours has been lightened.

As noted above, these things seem to travel in pairs and are usually seen gathered together with several old gas guys.

As far as moving the pumps, here is the system I used before I got one of those fancy tilt back dollies.

I cut 2 pieces of pink stryo foam wide enough to cover the doors. I shrink wrap those one on each door and then I cover them with a piece of 1/2" plywood cut almost as wide as the pump and tall enough to get above the top of the glass window. I shrink wrap that all together and then sinch the wrapped pump with a ratchet strap about a foot from the bottom and a foot from the top of the plywood, making sure both ratchets are on the same side so there is a clear bottom. When I get the pump to the trailer/truck bed, I tip it onto the edge of the trailer/truck bed and both of use lift partially into the bed placing it on a 3' long 2" diameter thick walled plastic plumbing pipe and proceed to roll it into place. If need be a second roller tube makes the placement easier. Once in place, we lift one end of the pump up and remove the tube and then the same on the other end. Unloading is just the reverse using the rollers to get you partially unloaded and still leaning on the tail gate... If it starts to get away from you ..... GET AWAY, Many of the pumps we buy already have some damaged areas, we refer to those as character marks. Welcome to OG. Neil in Green Bay

Well, I went and picked the pump up last night. Luckily, the seller had a large pipe wrench on the mostly abandoned property as the pump was still attached to the underground diesel tank that it had been married to for many, many years. I ended up removing both doors and we backed the truck up to the pump, laid two old barn boards against the tailgate and leaned the pump over on to them. We then managed to fairly easily slide the pump up into the bed and then wrapped both doors in moving blankets. The whole thing went better than I was afraid it might. The only damage that was not visible in the pictures was about and inch of metal that had rusted away at the bottom of the side with the crank on it. For basically having sat on the ground it's whole life, I'm not too disappointed. I feel like I may have overpaid a little, but this was the first one I'd seen even remotely close to me and it was half the price of others I'd seen that were many hours away. I'm excited to get into it!
One question for the group - at the top of the door, in the V trim where I assume there should be a sight glass, there is just a plastic lens with a light socket behind it. It seems like all the ones I've seen had a sight glass. Was this just a normal variation?
Thanks for all the advice so far - I'm sure I'll need lots more going forward.

Welcome to the club and congrats!
I believe your pump is a Gilbarco 996. Those are fantastic pumps with lots of aftermarket support and I found mine easy to work on.

As for the sight glass question, mine had a sight glass but I could see someone easily doing what yours has. I can't say if that was an option or something that was rigged up later on however.

The doors are from a 900 pump but the rest. or the sides, may very well be a 994 as they had the older type of hose cover.
There should be an id # och the reset crank plate...

Sight glass may have been removed and the hole blocked?

..and btw, if it would be a 906 or 996 it would have the hose on a reel :-)

//Claes