Introducing its first motorized fire engine in 1907 then quickly developing a full product line that included pumpers, ladder trucks, and a variety of specialized rescue vehicles. Founded in 1873 by Truxton Slocum LaFrance with some partners as the LaFrance Manufacturing Company, the focus was on the production of fire safety equipment and selling hand-powered and horse drawn equipment before going on to merge with other fire engine producers to form the American LaFrance Fire Engine Company in 1903. The truck is undergoing a frame up resto, and I have been working at this total engine rebuild for approximately a year now.With roots dating to 1832, the American LaFrance Fire Engine Company was one of the oldest fire apparatus manufacturers in the United States.

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. I know that there are quite a few of the V-12s out there, but parts are extremely hard to locate. Newark also has an ALF Caison truck - used for funerals. 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. Although the NY parts reserve was largely scrapped years ago, a few of the 700 series trucks still exist there. Chassis were fleet trucks, sold to large cities - NY, NY, and Newark, NJ had hundreds of them, for example. They were used across almost all of the ALF line, many being used in the 'Cities Service' chassis.

The basic engine was built from the mid 1920s until the early 1960s, when diesels replaced them. The ALF V-12 was their license built version of the Auburn auto engine. The 'only 4 built' refers to the quad 4 type of that year (1948), Sorry for the confusion. 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 ģ: 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. SO:ġ: 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) Ģ: salvage yours? Unless the bakelite is cracked or the contacts worn beyond use, carefully cleaning the contacting surfaces might work.

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.

American lafrance engine specifications