Old Force Four XL

[owl9704a]

I am trying to get this old monster cleaned and working for our VFD. Does anyone have an diagram of the dis assembly of this bar? Most of the screws have been twisted off and before I get violent I need to see just how this thing is put together. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Bob

 

[801]

can you post a few pictures???

 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

These bars are pretty straight forward.. are you trying to get the dome off?
remove the screws on the sides near the base of the domes.. then pull up to free the dome itself. The rest depends on the type.. is this an XL9000 or a XL5000.. I'm assuming its a 5000.

 

[owl9704a]

can you post a few pictures???

I will get a few pictures in the morning. Thanks
Bob

 

[owl9704a]

These bars are pretty straight forward.. are you trying to get the dome off?
remove the screws on the sides near the base of the domes.. then pull up to free the dome itself. The rest depends on the type.. is this an XL9000 or a XL5000.. I'm assuming its a 5000.

I have no idea. The only thing it says on the end is force 4 XL. I will post a couple of pictures tomorrow.
Thanks for your help.
Bob

 

[801]

Are you just trying to remove the domes or are you digging further into the bar.? There pretty straight forward , as Stamped said
If you can get a picture looking straight down, preferably a clear dome section

 

[owl9704a]

Are you just trying to remove the domes or are you digging further into the bar.? There pretty straight forward , as Stamped said
If you can get a picture looking straight down, preferably a clear dome section

I will do that first thing. ALl of the domes are clear so that part is easy. I am just trying to get the domes off. Everything needs cleaning badly, the mirrors and even the old sealed beams. No halogen on this old girl. And she has some strange angled flashers as well. As I said half of the screws are broken off part way out, and I want to get her back to work on one of our old trucks, but she neds to have more screws than I do so she doesn't leak.
AS I said, pictures first thing in the morning.
Thanks
Bob

 

[7d9_z28]

Strange angled flashers? Sounds like Stingers....

I was under the impression that the Force 4 bars were halogen rotator bars and the regular XL bars had the sealed beams. Either way, all clear bars are always cool, excited for pictures!

 

[owl9704a]

Strange angled flashers? Sounds like Stingers....

I was under the impression that the Force 4 bars were halogen rotator bars and the regular XL bars had the sealed beams. Either way, all clear bars are always cool, excited for pictures!

Well here they are:
If you need more let me know.
Bob

 

[dmathieu]

Code 3 XL9000.
The Force 4 stickers must be replacement domes.

 

[801]

The angled lights in between the rotators are Stingers. They should oscillate
side to side and up and down. Hopefully they work, if not when you get the domes off you can clean them up and put some white lithim grease on them.
The awesome thing about these bars is there are very easy to work on, if you can get the domes off. It sounds like the screws holding the domes on are striped or broken off.
I had a Federal Twinsonic that had broken/stripped screws, I took it to the local auto body shop and they were able to get them out with very little effort. The only other option I can think of is to drill the screws out, which is easier said than done, and tap the holes with tap and die set. Either way your looking at some work.
These are awesome bars, I've done a lot of work on the 74" monster on our first out Type 1 engine.

 

[801]

Code 3 XL9000.
The Force 4 stickers must be replacement domes.

I wonder if that's why the screws are stripped out, the screw holes on the domes don't line up with the orginal screw holes in the bar.

 

[dmathieu]

Same domes, different sticker. Should be the same....huh...

 

[7d9_z28]

That will be a great looking bar with fresh clear domes (or if those ones will polish up well)

 

[owl9704a]

That will be a great looking bar with fresh clear domes (or if those ones will polish up well)

First, she had sheet metal screws holding everything on, they rusted and twisted off when they tried to remove them. I will try drilling them down and see if i can get them down far enough to slip the domes off her. If not I guess I will be looking for some domes. This old girl will come apart. She powers up and works, but she does need a good cleaning and some grease. So this is a code 3 XL9000 ? OK, that is ok with me. And I have polished these domes on other bars with plexi glass polish and it worked well. So if I don't have to damage the domes to get them off I will be very happy.
Thanks for all of the help guys.
Bob

 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Just take your time and you'll get the domes off..
Almost look like someone was tinkering with it already..
The 1 rotator is a 90 bulb orientation and the other is a 120.. Should be pretty easy to clean up once you get the dome off...

I'm working on a version of this same light.

 

[owl9704a]

Just take your time and you'll get the domes off..
Almost look like someone was tinkering with it already..
The 1 rotator is a 90 bulb orientation and the other is a 120.. Should be pretty easy to clean up once you get the dome off...

I'm working on a version of this same light.

OK. I just cleaned the domes a little and took some better pictures for us. It looks like these domes are attached to plates inside withthe screw heads pointed at the . Confusing.
Thanks for the help.
Bob

 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

WAIT! before you do anything

The domes screw into the base of the frame with 6 screws.. 3 on each side at the base of the bar. There are no screws securing the dome in the endcaps.. the screws you see in end caps are to keep the endcap on the rest of the dome.


Once those screws are pulled you just need to pull up on the dome to free it from the base..

On your bar.. you need to remove the speaker grille first then remove the domes..

 

[801]

+1 on what Stampeed said

 

[owl9704a]

WAIT! before you do anything

The domes screw into the base of the frame with 6 screws.. 3 on each side at the base of the bar. There are no screws securing the dome in the endcaps.. the screws you see in end caps are to keep the endcap on the rest of the dome.


Once those screws are pulled you just need to pull up on the dome to free it from the base..

On your bar.. you need to remove the speaker grille first then remove the domes..

I have waited. I wanted to make sure I didn't hurt it so I have not done anything except clean the domes a little and ask questions. Now that I have a lot more knowledge I will finish removing the speaker grill and then work on getting the screws ground, drilled down so I can pop the domes off.
Thank all of you guys for the very valuable information you have given me. I really appreciate it.
Bob

 

[owl9704a]

I have waited. I wanted to make sure I didn't hurt it so I have not done anything except clean the domes a little and ask questions. Now that I have a lot more knowledge I will finish removing the speaker grill and then work on getting the screws ground, drilled down so I can pop the domes off.
Thank all of you guys for the very valuable information you have given me. I really appreciate it.
Bob

OK, got the girl all apart today with out incident. That bar is a tank. Everything in there is very heavy duty, less the belts that drive it. Everything came apart perfectly and now I can grease the rotators, replace the one burnt out sealed beam, and drill out 18 broken screws and re tap the holes with actual threads instead of using sheet metal screws. This is great. Thanks again for all of your help and information. Now I can get to work restoring this cool old bat.
Bob

 

[801]

Glad that worked out. Most of the older bars just keep on going with a little TLC. Most of the newer LED bars, when the I/O board or power supply goes out, it's easist (and cheapest) to just scavange some lightheads and the dump the rest.

 

[owl9704a]

Glad that worked out. Most of the older bars just keep on going with a little TLC. Most of the newer LED bars, when the I/O board or power supply goes out, it's easist (and cheapest) to just scavange some lightheads and the dump the rest.

Well, no one is going to scavenge anything from this beauty. The only issue I could for see is finding new drive belts for her. But I will make sure I find a couple somewhere JIC. Someone has to know where to find a pair. She is too good of a bar to use for parts after all of these years.
Thanks
Bob

 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

The stingers on this light are pretty cool.

I just picked up another one of these.. mid size with clear domes..
Will clean it up and get it working again..

 

[owl9704a]

The stingers on this light are pretty cool.

I just picked up another one of these.. mid size with clear domes..
Will clean it up and get it working again..

I have to admit,these are some really cool bars, and that Stinger is just unreal. What a wild thing they are. I am still a little concerned about finding belts for it if they break though. Anyone have any ideas? Would Code 3 possibly stock parts for something this old? I guess I had better get more numbers off it from somewhere other than the lenses.

 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I have to admit,these are some really cool bars, and that Stinger is just unreal. What a wild thing they are. I am still a little concerned about finding belts for it if they break though. Anyone have any ideas? Would Code 3 possibly stock parts for something this old? I guess I had better get more numbers off it from somewhere other than the lenses.

Good luck on the belts part.. I sold a few then ended up needing them and I couldn't find them.. I found some thanks to Shibby and have an iron grip on them.. lol