Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Getting started on my Bowser, how to remove guts

Well so far everything I've taken off, except the doors, is trash. As I get to the other stuff I will keep my iphone handy. I can even shoot video of disassembly that way.

I'm going to buy a big wrench tonight and try to get that bolt to turn. The rest will be cut off with a sawzall.

This whole "spray for a week and wait" mentality doesn't work for me. I saw a post today of a guy who gutted 9 pumps in one day, something tells me he didn't wait a week to spray every bolt. It's all in using the right tool for the job. In many cases it looks like the right tool is my favorite Jeep tool...BFH.

Thanks for the help, more questions as I go.

I have gutted tons of pumps and can do them in an 1/2 to an hour each. I use wrenches, socket set and a sawsall. Never hardly ever have any froze up nuts/bolts when gutting. I did a Wayne 80 yesterday and it took about 1/2 hour. Removing external panels for restoring is another story though.

I am not as fast as these guys....takes me half a day or longer to gut a pump. I am not overly mechanical...LOL I should stick to buying signs and hanging them. But, I have fond that if I spray the nuts and bolts ans let them sit overnight, the next day is soooo much smoother.

Right on ALEX! I've gutted over 50 pumps and its the same way. Things go a lot easier after sitting with some penetrating oil on them. I usually spray them down a few days in advance.

Kooky:

That looks like a reducer screwed into the actual gas manifold. If so, squirt it with PB Blaster and grab a beer. Drink the beer. Now get your biggest pipe wrench and remove the reducer.

Once that is out of the manifold, the side panel should clear the internal pipes and come off.

Later . . .

Jim

I like the beer part......

If you are just gutting the pump there is no need to take the sides off. Everything will come out the doors. If you are tearing down to restore that is a different story.

IF it takes Alex & Kevin more than a couple of hours to Gut 1 pump, THEY ARE ENJOYING TOO MANY COLD BEERS!

Ok, great success. I got the reducer off with a horrible pipe wrench from Harbor Freight. I also got a big piece of the motor out. Tomorrow I'll get some help to lay this thing on its side and get at the bolts on the bottom of the motor.

I also noticed, after getting the side panel off, that one of the 4 vertical supports is completely rusted away near the base. Is this an easy fix or should I take it to someone? I don't have a welder, just basic garage tools.

Next question...
Do I leave this stuff in? All of it, or just some? Obviously I'll keep the sightglass. Sorry for the dark picture.

Hi, the photos of your pump look a lot like the Bowser 575s that I used to restore. You will have to take off that that threaded reducer to get off the cover for the hose outlet. Besides soaking it in some sort of penetrating oil, a large pipe wrench and an extra long piece of pipe might be needed to get the reducer to turn out. The cover, which I believe is either stainless or chrome, comes out through the backside when you take off the side body panel. One trick that sometimes work with stubborn nuts and bolts is to first turn them slightly to tighten. This may break the rust seal. A couple of reducers that I had that wouldn't come out had to be hack-sawed from the inside down to the threads of the pipe outlet. I had to make two full length inside cuts close-by, say 1/8" apart, and then pop out the small piece just to break the seal. A lot of work but I saw no other way. Thanks for memories of bruises, cuts and swear words, but it was all worth it in the end.

Sorry, a little late with my info, I missed the second page. Glad you are making progress. I usually just kept the sight glass and the wiring conduit in mine along with the computer head and rod to the crank handle. Since they were for display only, the pump and motor went. Much easier to move.

Yeah, thanks. I'm making progress, albeit slowly. I should have all the guts out later today and am working on getting the panels dissassembled and labelled before soda blasting.

Remember removing inner pumps from the gas pumps lots of scraped hands. Have a Tokheim 850 with everything out its kind of top heavy so be careful moving these, dropped a M and S 70 once from being top heavy now it has light crack on the art deco ad glass frame, my luck.

Where is the local (stl) soda blaster?

Wood River Soda Blasting