Name: mack B125F fire engine (1957) Date Added: 11 December 2008 - 01:21 PM Owner: engine 3 Short Description: This engine served front line duty for many years with the San Gabriel Fire Department. City of San Gabriel has used it, for various p.r. functions, over the last 25 years or so. The largest events are a "Santa Claus Run", the City of San Gabriel Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, Chinese New Year, and the Glendora Parade. It was repainted once in the 1970's. Beginning in 2002 several upgrades have been completed. While performing these upgrades, alot of thought and effort went into preserving the original appearance and charecter of this engine. The entire electrical system was rotting and full of shorts. It was replaced with a painless wiring 18 circuit system and converted to a negative ground. The original 100 amp generator was replaced with (2) 200 amp alternators. The original distributors, which are the same as a chevy stove bolt six, were outfitted with pertronix electronic pickups. They work great. The conversion was easy. And, there are no more points to fool around with. According to the most senoir members of the fire department, even when new, the original air powered windshield wipers were horrible. Specialty Power Windows manufactures a really slick electric powered conversion kit. We were even able to use the original under dash wiper mounts. After a unsuccessful two year search for new oil filter cartridges, The engine was converted to a dual remote mount oil filter system. I used the original oil filter housing as a pattern for a adaptor plate, which was made from a peice of aluminium scrap. The fuel pump posed two problems. First, it had failed decades ago and was in the way of my home fabbed adaptor plate. Second, there was a mysterious groove machined in the inboard 1/3 of the fuel pump pushrod. I didn't know if the machined groove was some kind of oil metering device to the valve train. I spoke with several experienced sources and they didn't know either. so, I made a spring loaded device, which keeps the pushrod following the lobe it rides on. The engine now uses readily available big block chevy oil filters. The water tank was removed to make room for parade seating in the hose bed. I have been careful to keep any original parts which have been replaced with modern components. We are currently attempting to replace the split ring tube type rims with one piece tubeless rims. Accuride manufactures several sizes of conversion rims, which mount onto the original spoked hubs. The department has a few pages of the original service manual. This engine has been a great learning experience. I plan on including several photos in the near future, as soon as I figure out how to do so. It is alwayse exciting to Hear a 50+ year old peice of equipment purr like new. View Vehicle
