Everything You Should Know About Collecting a Tokheim 36 Antique Gas Pump

Outside the garage with gas pump Rob. In this video feature we are going to take a close look at the Tokheim 36 gas pump. These were manufactured with three different tops:

This is the all milk glass version. This is by far the rarest top to find because most of these were broken when they were in service. They’re beautiful when they’re lit up at night. If you’ve never seen one you need to witness that.

This is the ad glass top. Also not as commonly found as this.

This is the stamped steel top. Most of these pumps that you’ll find in the wild will have this stamped steel top. The reason being is they were practically indestructible unless the pump fell over. You’ll either find it with that top or no top at all which means maybe it had a milk glass top that was shattered years ago.

Now we’re going to take a look at the 36B which you see here. This is one of the finest examples of a 36B gas pump I’ve ever found in my collecting hobby. This came with original pump plates both sides. Ethel plates. This came straight off a dairy farm in Southern California. It’s complete including the guts. One of the obvious differences when you look at these two pumps together is the window opening size is smaller on this, the 36, versus the 36B.

Let’s take a closer look at the bezels side by side. On the left you have the Tokheim 36 and on the right you have the Tokheim 36B. Here you can see the major differences in the two bezels. Even the top badges are completely different. Everything about the 36B versus the 36 is actually different. From a distance they look the same but these trim spears are wider on the 36B. Look how petite they are here on the 36. Big difference.

Overall I’ve always been attracted to the 36 versus the 36B. One of the main reasons is it holds this external visigage which I think is the coolest thing especially when you see it running and flowing fuel compared to the 36B which has an internal manifold assembly and sight glass in the face.

One very important detail about a 36 Tokheim versus a 36B is the difference in the calculator size. This calculator right here is out of a 36 and I’ll lay the measuring tape on it. As you can see the housing is right at 11 inches. All your other later model pumps like the 36B and beyond 12 inches. So if you purchase a 36 pump make sure it has this 11 inch calculator in it. Otherwise you could run into issues with the doors or the bezels hitting on the face pans and that actually happened to me once.

One other point I want to bring up today. This is called a meter. This is out of a Benett 646. I just happen to have this one in the garage that I can put on the table to show everybody but that’s called a meter. It measures fuel flow from the gas pump which is below it. The fuel flow flows through the meter and then from here it goes out to your discharge where your nozzle and hose are. This will turn with the fuel flow and then a drive shaft connects from this meter to this calculator underneath to turn the wheels and to calculate the price per gallon, amount of gallons and the sale. The reason I bring this up is a lot of times people refer to these calculatorsas meters and that is not correct. These are always called the calculator and the manufacturer. the manufacturer called them calculators, and this unit here is known as the meter. I thought this might help all of us in the hobby so we can differentiate between the two.

Okay, now I’m going to show you something very special. This is known as the Tokheim 870 special gas pump. This one was manufactured in the San Francisco, California Tokheim manufacturing plant in the 1930s. It survived all these years. It has an ad glass top. It has 76 pump plates. The body style is identical to a Tokheim 36, but it’s the non-calculating or clock face version of that pump.

Let’s get a look at the ID tag. Notice it says CUT 870. That’s the model number there, 870. On the faces it says 870 special. Tokheim Moneymaker model 36. Very interesting pump. Typically when you hear 870 in the pump collecting world, you would think of these. Here we have the Tokheim 870 clock face pump:

Straight cabinet. External visigage. Glass is broken on that one.

And then here we have a very limited production 870A Tokheim gas pump. The difference between these two is we have this center stamped steel casting below it versus this one which is just a straight cabinet. So we have 870A and 870. 870 special.

This is a close up of the two tops. I removed them from the pumps. This is the 36 top or 870 special and this is the 36B top. They are completely different in size. The 36B top width wise is about 14 3 quarters as you can see. And the 36 gas pump top measured out at about 14 3 eighths. So just to let you guys know, basically nothing is interchangeable between the 36 and the 36B pump. The castings are different. The sheet metal is different. The bezels are different. Even though they appear to be similar from a distance, they are actually not when it comes to fit and finish.

This is a short video clip of another one I picked up from a good friend in Northern California. Okay, let’s take a look inside thisTokheim 870 special gas pump. Complete unit including cobwebs.

Tokheim 36 and Tokheim 36B. Let’s get a better look at this 36B. This is a nice pump. For all those pump plate collectors that have your pump plates hung on the wall, I love having them on the pump itself. They’re beautiful on a wall displayed, but I like to see pump plates left on pumps if possible.

Thank you for watching my video feature. If you have not yet subscribed to my channel, please hit that subscribe button. Leave questions, comments below in the comments section. And don’t forget to hit the notification button or icon. That way you are notified as soon as my videos are produced and uploaded to YouTube. Thank you.