According to my book, Allis-Charmers used the following serial # system from 1955-1970, an 8 digit #
1960- s/n 16,947,000
1961- s/n 18,787,000
1971 the system changed to a all digit#
1st digit 1= plant #
2nd and 3rd 71 digit= year 1971
4th/5th digit month 01 =january
6th/7th digit production # 279
WOW johnj, talk about "knowing what your talking about," thats an incredable discourse, hats off to you.

Your truck was made in 1971.

1. Sorry I don't have info as to year of manufactuer. When I retired I tossed all my forklift lift stuff in the trash including my serial number guide. But my 'guesstiamte" it is early 1970ish at best good possibility it is older as the engine was renamed to the G-153 and any referenced to the Buda company was gone when I joined the company in 1967. After A-C moved to a the Matteson Lift truck plant in 1970 they started using a s/n system with alpha & numerical numbers to indicate what plant the product was built in. The s/n you provided does not reflect that change.
2. Reasons for discontinuing the use of the A-C engine was for a couple of reasons - the main one was increase in cost (about doubled). Production volume in engine manufactuering is everthing to keep cost down. The A-C Engine Divison supplied a lot of generator sets that used the same engines as the lift trucks to the US government in support of the Vietnam Conflict. When the US withdrew from Vietnam, production volume fell off, cost went up. The lift truck division was they only significant user of this engine. The other reason corporate, David C. Scott, President, was looking for extra cash flow to support a five year mega buck "coal gasification" project that never panned out and cost reduction was the name of the game for all A-C operations as directed by corporate - they picked the F163/225 because it was cheap (marketing had no input but later did get blamed for loss of market share). At that time - only Clark & Yale had overhead valve engines & Cat was coming out with one in their lift trucks so the engineers & production folks said the "majority" of lift trucks supplies are using the Contiental wafle head engines. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. David C. Scott screwed up Colt Industries before he came to A-C.

Hi again-
I'm kinda directing questions to johnr j but I'd welcome anyone's input.
#1 My A/C FPL40-24-2PS (from above) is Serial# 17101279 - any idea what year it was made?
#2 Why did A/C quit using the overhead valve & sleeved 4B-153 engine and go to a gutless, flathead, slug continental engine?
Thanks Again

In the time period this unit was built, A-C market share in the commerical market for engine powered equipment was in the 10-12% in addition, A-C secured 1/3 of all US government & Ford Motor Company purchases which were signifcant at that time. Their demise was when they changed from the AC built engines to the Continetal flat heads F163/227 & imposed a 6.5% surcharge on all back orders as directed by corporate headquarters, even on direct sales (National Accounts) customers during a time peiod when lead time on new productions was 52 weeks plus & the US was faced with double digit inflation thanks to the smooth talking peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia. The surcharge was a major reason for the drop in market share - e.g. A-C was the number 1 supplier to GoodyearTire & Rubber prior to the surcharge then dropped to last place in a matter of a couple months. By 1982 market share dropped to about 4.5% which was still larger than Bakers in engine powered equipment.
I was there from '67 - '82.
There was a company that provided service parts i nthe Kansas City area taht warehosued parts in an old mine. They distriputed parts to former A-C dealers after A-C clsoed their doors adn sold the assest to ACMH in Columbus, Ohio, them later became Kalmar A-C who was bought by Komatsu. At that time their were a few people that new the older A-C parts & sourcing. When Komatsu moved from Georgia to South Carolina those people were not transfered and Komatsu had no interest in pursuing the segment of their business. Kinda' like "dying the death of a rag doll" - one cotton ball at a time.

Parts should not be difficult to get for this forklift truck. The thing that makes it more difficult than the age is the fact that it is an Allis Chalmers. They were not that popular in the day.
Most common wear items should be available aftermarket and any more expensive, larger items should be available used.

Like most other dealers we source parts for most trucks, especially older units, by the type of part. For example, we have a supplier for water pumps, one for starters and alternators, one for hydraulics and so on. I just sold a guy a rebuilt water pump for a 1952 Baker forklift 2 weeks ago.

That's what happens when company folds it's tent in 1986. The only people I know that might be able to help you with sourcing parts, etc are the Komatsu factory story in Alsip, IL - contact Scott Eller and Langer Material Handling in Pittsburgh area, contact Kevin Langer. These contacts are people who worked for previous A-C dealers and MIGHT able provide assistance. Do a Google search to find contact info.

Thanks so much johnr j
Info on these old A/C's seems to have vanished...

The term "cotton" meant thee are special features designed for use in the Cotton industry primarily in California, Arizona & Texas - one large costumer at that time was Cal-Cot Industries. A-C had a full time service staff to keep units running as this was a 24/7 operation during the cotton harvest season. From what I recall - the Cotton Units had other features like, LPS Safety features, high speed differntional -about 2 mph higher than standard, fly **** in the transmisson disc to get a positive lock up (when they were moving bales the brake pedal was seldom used - just trans reversals, a flat angle inching pedal with a strondear return spring to keep the operators from activating teh inching mode all the time - the spring gave them cramps if they did, the radiator wider spacing bewteen fins & in-line vertical tubes - so the lint wouldn't build up so quickly & could be easier blown out, there were two belts but only one was driving, the second belt was secured to make fan belt replacement quicker) on that model the hyd. pump was crankshaft driven, normally you would have to loose the pump mounty bolts & slide the pump back to instal a new belt. This two belt system was a time saver or course after the second belt broke, you would have to loosen the hyd pump & install two more belts. This belt only drove the water pump. There were probably other things but at this point in life I can't recall
In late 60's i wrote tech manuals (service, parts, operators) for A-C, in 1970 I started working in marketing & wrote sales literature for them - event the "Cotton Special".