Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Bennett 766 sight glass instalation problems

I posted earlier but obviously in the wrong forum...sorry.
I have a Bennett 766 with the skins in the paint shop. It does not have a sight glass and bezzle but I have since found them. How can I be sure I locate and drill the hole in the door in the right spot. Every way I have looked at it , it looks pretty tough to be sure. Am I missing something ? Thanks

To my knowledge I've never seen a 766 w/o spinners in doors.

IF body panels have not been painted yet, pickup & reassemble to check alignment. Might have to make a pointer to bolt on to spinner manifold [like used on a ceiling fixture to attach a light] then close door to mark inside [of door].

Excellent idea...thanks

I have several of the pumps with no sight glass in the door. The sight glass manifold is in the pump but the spinners and glass was removed and a blockoff plate installed. If you look closely at the back of the door you will see the outline of the hole cutout. I have no idea if these came from the factory like this or it was a modification sometime later. All I can say is that the door appears to have never been punched for the glass. The one person that I know of that could answer why these pumps are like that is Larry Robertson in Michigan, he worked for Bennett and has a wealth of knowledge.
Tom.

First of all, I would like to have the serial number of your 766. Assuming it is a late model, around the end of its run in 1954, articles were appearing in National Petroleum News concerning sight glasses. Such as, were they really necessary? Everyone, including the government, was concerned that we see the gasoline we were purchasing, so, "visible" gas pumps. These replaced "blind" pumps.
Then the companies gave us outside sight gauges or as some companies called them "see" gauges. Then they were moved to the inside of the pump. But by the mid-50s they were seen as not being not that necessary.
While I cannot find anything in my Bennett literature relating to any 700 series pumps without a inside sight glass, I am sure that at sometime Bennett was asked "If we buy 100 of your pumps, and we ask that they don't have any sight glass, how much will you charge us"?, Bennett would have jumped at any chance to sell some pumps.
I have had a number of Bennett 700 pumps where the sight glass was blocked off, so it doesn't surprise me that some were made without even a hole in the door.
Restore the pump as it is, why is it necessary to have a sight glass?

Jack Sim

".... why is it necessary to have a sight glass?"

Pump will APPEAR to be from 1948-1953 w/ site glasses, instead of it being a late 1954.

Adding the site glasses is like the guys that can't find/afford a Real Dial Face pump putting DUMMY Dial Faces in so it APPEARS to be a Higher Dollar version [Tokheim 36B DP, Wayne 866, etc etc]!

I have seen 600 series Bennetts without sight glass also. All the ones I have seen were Sinclair pumps. Maybe they ordered them that way. Any one else have opinions on this?