1948 American LaFrance Junior V-12

[Andrew Mackey]

I am in the process of restoring the engine for my local fire dept. It belongs to an ALF Quad 4 That ALF built for Rockaway Boro FD. The engine is an ALF built V-12 Junior series, with 527 CID displacement, and 215 HP@4,000RPM. There were only 4 built that year, and ours was a prototype truck, as it was the first of the type to have front suction. I am on a Quest to locate the distributer caps and rotors for this engine. The distributers are Delco - dual point 12 cylender units.. The caps have 2 lead in towers, and 12 output towers each. this engine is also a dual distributer job, and it has 2 plugs per cylinder. I have checked with advertisers here on the Stak, as well as the ALF collectors (SPAAMFA) site with no luck. Does any one have an idea where I might find these items? Thanks in advance,
Andrew

[WildIrishman52]

Andrew, Andy Swift who owns Firefly Restorations in Hope, ME might be able to help you out. He is an expert with fire truck restos and has been doing it for years. He is one of our Maine Antique Power Assn members. Contact me directly and I will give you his phone # Joe Kelley

[Bud Tierney]

I'm not familiar with these, but if I understand your post only four of those engines built, or only four with your specific dist's?? Even assuming the engine continued in production with your dist's, it's probably a low total prod engine, which makes finding parts mostly praying for miracles. SO:
1: cast your net wide: post to every old truck site you can find, every fire/fireman/fire truck site and the farm /tractor sites too (old iron collectors often have wide interests);
2: salvage yours? Unless the bakelite is cracked or the contacts worn beyond use, carefully cleaning the contacting surfaces might work. I've never run across anyone who rebuilt dist caps, but it might be worth checking with some dist rebuilders to see what they do for orphan parts they can't find;
3: possibly modifying/cobbling together other 12-outlet dist's or caps?? Some (if not most) of the Hall-Scotts used in fire trucks had dual ign on their 6's, both Delco and AL; don't know if H-S made a V12 or not, but various others have. Good luck!.

[Fred M.]

Originally Posted by Andrew Mackey

I am in the process of restoring the engine for my local fire dept. It belongs to an ALF Quad 4 That ALF built for Rockaway Boro FD.

Andrew-

Out of curiosity, I looked up American LaFrance. Their web site has a page about "Legacy Parts/Restoration" for pre-1995 models, suggesting you start by contacting your local ALF dealer. I assume you have determined that they cannot supply the parts you need.

In addition to Andy Swift of Firefly, they also refer to Kenneth Soderbeck of Hand In Hand Restoration.

Somehow 1995 doesn't sound old enough to be called "legacy", but 1948 does!

Fred

[Andrew Mackey]

The 'only 4 built' refers to the quad 4 type of that year (1948), Sorry for the confusion. The ALF V-12 was their license built version of the Auburn auto engine. The basic engine was built from the mid 1920s until the early 1960s, when diesels replaced them. They were used across almost all of the ALF line, many being used in the 'Cities Service' chassis. C.S. Chassis were fleet trucks, sold to large cities - NY, NY, and Newark, NJ had hundreds of them, for example. Although the NY parts reserve was largely scrapped years ago, a few of the 700 series trucks still exist there. Most, if not all of Newark's 700s are gone, but I do know of a tiller steer with the V-12, that is in the throes of restoration. Newark also has an ALF Caison truck - used for funerals. I know that there are quite a few of the V-12s out there, but parts are extremely hard to locate. Our department bought the last set of copper head gaskets that ALF had in stock, for our engine, and the next to last con rod bearing set. The truck is undergoing a frame up resto, and I have been working at this total engine rebuild for approximately a year now. The engine is now nearly ready to be fired up!
Andrew

[Bill Geyer]

Hello Andrew and all,

Here is one that is always at the Temple, TX show. Don't know what model it is but always enjoy seeing it run

Bill