The oddball Har-Dav Serial Number thread!

[HarleyCreation]

Herb,
sorry fore my bad english,mayby you call it cast letters.
But anyway here it is U9-555 with (raised letters) cast letters

http://s814.photobucket.com/albums/zz69/glaser31/?action=view&current=BILD0131.jpg

Not sure what the raised letters might mean; but only that "U9-555" suggests a c1919 crankcase.

[glaser 31]

Herb,
sorry fore my bad english,mayby you call it cast letters.
But anyway here it is U9-555 with (raised letters) cast letters

http://s814.photobucket.com/albums/zz69/glaser31/?action=view&current=BILD0131.jpg

[HarleyCreation]

okay,
but normal harley ended with raised letters on the right crankcase,
in 1916...?

Which raised letters are you talking about?

Can you post a photo link?

[glaser 31]

okay,
but normal harley ended with raised letters on the right crankcase,
in 1916...?

[HarleyCreation]

hi,
I only have the right case U9-555.
could the U9-555 come from a raceing engine..? I think that I have
seen raceing engine from after 1916 with raised Harley Davidson lettters on the
right crankcase? ore am I wrong about this.

then 21366 those the numbers looks like harley stamps...?

Don't know if it's racing or street.

Nor can I tell you if those are factory stamps which is something I need to study and learn.

But without a letter prefix or suffix it doesn't appear to fit the factory numbering system. There should not be any plain number over 10,000.

[glaser 31]

hi,
I only have the right case U9-555.
could the U9-555 come from a raceing engine..? I think that I have
seen raceing engine from after 1916 with raised Harley Davidson lettters on the
right crankcase? ore am I wrong about this.

then 21366 those the numbers looks like harley stamps...?

[HarleyCreation]

hi Herb,
no there is no letters after 21366.
but can you then tell about the other carnkcase I have,
with raised letters.It has the belly number: U9-555
is this then from 1919 ? but then did the normal engines not have
raised letters...?
michael

Without a letter it doesn't seem to be a standard factory engine number; unless the new guy forgot to put it on.

I don't know about the raised letters.

Yes, belly U9-555 should belong to a 1919 motor. They used that belly system showing the last digit of the year between around 1917 thru 1920 and maybe earlier but I don't think after '20.

Is there a 1916 belly number in the house?

[HarleyCreation]

Very cool telegram!

Prohibition was a difficult time for Milwaukee, but beer was still available.

Old man Davidson told me that when he was a kid during Prohibition, his father would send him into the back yard with an empty pitcher and he would pass it thru a hole in the fence and it would come back full of beer. The neighbor was a "get-get-get" Gettleman.

Another old guy did work around the the Davidson home said a pitcher of beer was provided to lighten the load. Did the same thing happen around the Factory during Prohibition? That would seem to be a very risky thing for a business to do, but if the men brought beer inside, possibly they would look the other way.

Certainly after Prohibition ended there would have been a flood of beer but which probably ended at the Factory during WWII when lots of stiff-necked govt. inspectors were present. Altho it may have continued on the sly even after the war.

This was, after all, old Milwaukee.

[glaser 31]

hi Herb,
no there is no letters after 21366.
but can you then tell about the other carnkcase I have,
with raised letters.It has the belly number: U9-555
is this then from 1919 ? but then did the normal engines not have
raised letters...?
michael

[rwm]

not an oddball # but a cool document

[Chris Haynes]

It must have been later as John started at the MoCo in the later '30's.

[Sargehere]

Don"t overlook "Prohibition," The Eighteenth Amendment, in force from 1920 to 1933. Maybe the beer ration was a product of the repeal of prohibition, in the 1930s and later.

[HarleyCreation]

Bruce Palmer got an H-D tin cup from John Nowak. John told him that cup was the official H-D cup for the hourly beer ration for workers on the line. I don't know what the time frame was.

Very interesting. I spoke with guys who mentioned that beer ration too and it must have been after WW1 because the earliest guy I think I ever talked to started there in 1919. Possibly it lasted into the 1930s. Maybe that's why those early ELs look so good!

[Chris Haynes]

Bruce Palmer got an H-D tin cup from John Nowak. John told him that cup was the official H-D cup for the hourly beer ration for workers on the line. I don't know what the time frame was.

[HarleyCreation]

“An experienced "stamper" (beery or not) would have done it right in his sleep.”
I’m told that the old pin-stripers could have a bucket of beer with lunch, and still pull a straight line the length of Cadillac or open touring. …bill

That's what I'm thinking too. Maybe the bucket of beer might even have helped relax them and made them happy on the job.

But I'm NOT suggesting that would be a good thing today. I don't think they got plastered back then, but just a daily mild glow. In later years they had to wait until after work and would hang out at the tavern across the footbridge north of the RR tracks.