Old pumps hit gas price limit

By John K. Wiley | The Associated Press • Published May 11, 2008

Men in Chip Colville's family have been pumping gasoline since his grandfather opened Colville's Garage on Main Street in 1919.

Back then, cars shared the street with horses and mules in this Lincoln County farming town of 600 about 20 miles west of Spokane. A gallon of gasoline could be had for less than a quarter.

Now, Main Street is U.S. Highway 2, and a gallon of gasoline is edging toward $4. Diesel fuel passed the $4 mark last month.

And that's the problem.

The three gasoline dispensers outside Colville's Inc. Chevron station were built when gasoline was still less than $1 a gallon and the mechanical meters on the pumps stop at $3.999.

Bob Renkes, executive vice president and general counsel of the Petroleum Equipment Institute of Tulsa, Okla., estimates as many as 8,500 of the nation's 170,000 service stations have the old meters, or about 17,000 individual dispensers that need to be fixed.

The mechanical meters have to be retrofitted with higher numbers whenever pump prices climb another dollar. The last time it happened was in late 2005, when gasoline went over $3 a gallon, and owners of older pumps with mechanical computers had to install gear kits that went to 3.999.

Owners now need to replace another gear kit that goes to 4.999, and possibly higher.

"The last time when it wouldn't go above $2.99, they came out with a retrofit kit. I think it cost about $40 per hose," Colville said. "This time, there's no kit available and I don't think you're even going to make one that is going to be compatible with these pumps," he said.

Al Eichorn, vice president of PMP Corp., which remanufactures the mechanical computers, said Colville's meters likely can be upgraded to a new model that reads up to $9.999, for a cost of about $600-$650 per dispenser.

The Avon, Conn., company has hired extra employees who are working overtime, but still has a 14-week backlog of orders, Eichorn said.

"This happened in the '70s when gas went above $1," Eichorn said. "The scary part then was we had a year long backlog. That's the reason the states' weights and measures people are allowing half-pricing."