Mounting Question

Bill Marcy

PCS Member
I am making a little progress with my 68 Superior ambulance, but I have a slight problem. The previous owner had given me a Federal Model 78B which he bought from John Dorgan. It is restored and gorgeous. My problem is that when we tried to mount it, the holes in the roof do not line up with the holes in the base of the siren/light. In addition, it seems to lack a gasket that goes between it and the roof. What can I do? See pictures below. Thanks for any help.
 

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There are no mounting gaskets, but you can purchase rubber washers and put them between the mount and the roof. The wires that are showing in that picture are for the light and the brake. You need a minimum of a 6 gauge stranded machine tool class K wire for the siren itself. This is an extremely fine stranded (266 strands in the bundle)(class K) wire, that is both easy to work with, and will give you the best electrical conductivity. The least that I would consider is 133 strand class H 6 gauge wire. This should be available from local electrical supply houses in larger cities where there is manufacturing. The other alternative is to go to www.delcity.net and order 25 feet of 6 gauge red or black battery cable wire.
 
To my knowledge, no Federal motor siren on a 1959-70 Superior used a Federal mounting bracket except for a Q2*. Because of the angle of the roof over the cab, none of the sirens would sit level if the Federal (contour) bracket was used. Therefore - as discussed here often - Superior used their own mounting brackets during these model years. The 1959 through 1964 series used a fore/aft sliding adjustment, while the later version (seen on cars into 1972** until the inventory was used up) had a through bolt for adjustment. The adjustment was necessary because the roof angle was slightly different between the lowtops and hightops; that way, the same bracket could be used for both. Many examples of Superiors with Superior brackets can be seen on this site.

Your car either had a Q2 on the roof from the factory or another Federal (four hole mount) siren installed there later.

*I'm guessing the reason the Federal brackets were used on the Q's is that the Superior brackets weren't stable enough (footprint too small) to handle the torque and weight of the larger siren.

**As seen here:

http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/showpost.php?p=31504&postcount=151
 
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The Superior Mount... Don't know if the two small holes in the front of the mount were added by Superior, or by someone else after it left the factory. This mount is not for sale.
 

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