New Acquisition: B-series Thunderbolt

[sirendude2012]

I just ran my harper woods B series today.
Chopper and rotation still work great.
Maybe next spring I'll start restoring this one.

Glad to hear that your B-series is (somewhat) famous, and a complete working unit.

Why do you say somewhat famous?

I don't know, I think I got it mixed up with some other siren.

[freebrickproductions]

Glad to hear that your B-series is (somewhat) famous, and a complete working unit.

Why do you say somewhat famous?

I don't know, I think I got it mixed up with some other siren.

IIRC, Eric's B-series thunderbolt was the one in Salter Park in Harper Woods, MI. I might have gotten some of that information wrong though.

[sirendude2012]

I have a few questions about the Thunderbolt, pertaining to the B-series of course. I need this info to find substitute parts, as WSS won't sell parts to us since "we don't own one of their sirens" (even though we do), and some of our parts need replacing/are broken.

Are the collector rings exclusive to the B-series? If so, are there companies that will make new ones or repair them?

What size of motor will work as a rotator motor?

What size are the collector ring brushes on a B-series?

Where can I get a gasket for the chopper tube/ chopper assembly? For the chopper tube rain cap?

Is there a certain kind of grease I should lube the siren with?

What kind of conduit runs from the rain cap into the chopper tube?

That's all for now, I'll probably have more in the future... By the way, "us" refers to me and my friend, we work on the siren together. He is a member here, his name is hjg.

[FSThunderboltfan1000]

The collector rings were on both the thunderbolt 1003 and the B series Thunderbolt. The only difference is the collector rings on the 1003 are for the solenoids and on the B series they are for the chopper.

[Tyler]

Why do you say somewhat famous?

I don't know, I think I got it mixed up with some other siren.

IIRC, Eric's B-series thunderbolt was the one in Salter Park in Harper Woods, MI. I might have gotten some of that information wrong though.

Yeah it is, but I don't see what that has to do with anything. All I see is your out of the ordinary B-series Thunderbolt.

[Chicagosiren-hunters]

The reason it is famous (this may be in my eyes) is because it is the one in the famous video by Cheetawolf:
https://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=17s ... uphGXpByg4

[TboltTX1]

I need this info to find substitute parts, as WSS won't sell parts to us since "we don't own one of their sirens" (even though we do).

That doesn't make sense, what company would turn away a paying customer? Did Jeff even have parts for a "B" series on hand?

[coastalsyrolover]

WSS stopped talking to me too. I usually don't go to them for anything anymore... Their prices stunk too...

[sirendude2012]

That doesn't make sense, what company would turn away a paying customer? Did Jeff even have parts for a "B" series on hand?

They have parts, but when we called them to see if we could get them, they said "We only sell parts to customers that have our sirens". Technically, our siren came from WSS. It's gone through a few changes of hands though. We tried to call Jeff, but he hasn't been picking up the phone at all.

We didn't get the siren from WSS, we got it from a guy that got it from WSS.
Basically, WSS --> the guy --> me.

[TboltTX1]

Wow, I knew they were stiff on their pricing (which they have every right to be), but this is downright ridiculous. I guess alot has changed since I last talked to them. Best of luck sirendude!