The Siren Board

In 10 days, I will be going to West Shore Services to purchase my first siren! That siren is a GCS Model 5 (8 Port), and it has been there for a VERY long time. When I last went there in August, the siren was VERY locked up, and I can’t seem to find any advice anywhere else on this, so I was wondering if anybody would know what the best way to fix a locked up siren is?? Being a fan Collecter, I am quite good with smaller motors, but I have never worked with something quite like this, and I’m assuming it’s quite a bit harder to fix than a little 120V motor!

Any info on this would be greatly appreciated!

Vintagecollections wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 22, 2021 2:44 pm

In 10 days, I will be going to West Shore Services to purchase my first siren! That siren is a GCS Model 5 (8 Port), and it has been there for a VERY long time. When I last went there in August, the siren was VERY locked up, and I can’t seem to find any advice anywhere else on this, so I was wondering if anybody would know what the best way to fix a locked up siren is?? Being a fan Collecter, I am quite good with smaller motors, but I have never worked with something quite like this, and I’m assuming it’s quite a bit harder to fix than a little 120V motor!

Any info on this would be greatly appreciated!

Check the motor. There might be stuff in it that's locking it up. Oil the bearings and the shaft. That's what I did with my Darley.
Also, how much is it? Someone I knew went there and said a 7T was $1200 because scrap prices went up.

my friend Sam is currently working on a locked up STH-10. you will probably need to get the chopper off using a torch of some sort. as for the motor itself the rotor has likely rusted a small amount and has locked itself in the motor. I am not entirely certain but i would think that tapping it out with a sledge hammer may work.

@champion siren:

I was quoted $150 from Mike and he told me that’s pretty much the cheapest they sell anything there! I was also quoted $150 for a 7T, but I don’t think I’m going to buy that one.

if the bearings are siezed and the shaft has a tight fit the bearings DO NOT USE A BREAKER BAR, CHANCES ARE THE SHAFT WILL SPIN IN THE BEARING CAUSING THE SHAFT TO GET MANGLED. if it has bearings, and removable caps like some brushless power chair motors I was playing with all I had do was yank off the front and rear housings with a slide hammer puller and push out the bearings with a press, what ever you do dont ever reuse bearings that were frozen, even if you can free them up, they wont roll nice, and sometimes all the balls will fall out. i know this from experience with wheel bearings,

Model L wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 22, 2021 4:24 pm

my friend Sam is currently working on a locked up STH-10. you will probably need to get the chopper off using a torch of some sort. as for the motor itself the rotor has likely rusted a small amount and has locked itself in the motor. I am not entirely certain but i would think that tapping it out with a sledge hammer may work.

The STH-10 is one of the easier ones to get apart because of the rotor design. Once you remove the three bolts from the center take the plate that sits across them and put a socket that is slightly smaller than the shaft on it and then run the two bolts in the outside holes. Put nuts on those bolts before putting them in and then start tightening those nuts pushing that socket against the shaft. Set the siren upside down and spray PB Blaster in there until the shaft hole is full up. Then let it sit overnight. Next day tighten the nuts 1/4 turn. Spray more PB Blaster and let it sit. It could take a week or more but once the shaft starts to move out of the rotor, it will go easy. Stack sockets to get the distance right to keep pushing it apart but that is what I did.

The bearings are press fit in the housings so once the rotor is off. You can take (most likely SNAP) the 4 long bolts that hold the motor together.
Get a couple 2X4's and drill them through on the 2 inch side and bolt them to the holes that hold the chopper housing on that you removed after getting the rotor off the shaft.
Shore up the 2X4's so the top of the motor is hanging above the work bench. The motor would be shaft up at this point.
With a piece of 2X4 to protect the shaft of the motor put against the top of the shaft smack the 2X4 with a dead blow hammer several time and the motor should begin to separate.
DO NOT get all crazy and beat the hell out of it. You will only break things. This again is a slow and steady sort of thing. Once you get the motor apart you will have access to pull the rotor out of the other end of the housing. DO NOT PRY on ANY OF THIS.
Flip the motor over and support the housing with stacks of 4X4's or some other thick wood. Bolt a piece of 2X4 to the shaft and hit the 2X4 down to dislodge the bearing from teh top housing.

At this point the motor should be ready to be inspected. PUT NEW BEARINGS IN IT. IF they were locked up and came free they are still bad.
The bearings will have a part number on them you can google that number and the manufacture name and find the proper bearing size. DO THIS BEFORE any attempt is made to remove the bearings.

If anybody is wondering how it looks at this point, here are some photos I took when I was there in early August:

Also, the bottom shroud is on a model X for some reason.

Ooo that looks to be an old one! I hope you can get more detailed photos once you get it in your hands! Any idea on the age?

I’ll be sure to post some more detailed photos in 8 days when I get it! It is most likely from circa 1947, as the city of Belleville, MI has a GCS model 5 Identical to this one that was confirmed to be from 1947, here is a link to my video of Belleville’s GCS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xerRsLwQRqg

I'd say yours is from the 1940's because it has Federal Electric internals. You'd have to get the date code off of it for us to conclusively ID it.
You're also in possession of a true Type/Model 3, which is a very rare find indeed!