The oddball Har-Dav Serial Number thread!

[HarleyCreation]

Courtesy of Slojo......

I see that I have some catching up to do. That eight-valve stuff has been warping my brain and absorbing all my time.

Like Pete said, this shows that errors were made. The "too-much-Milwaukee-beer" theory is a good one, altho those guys knew how to drink, or put another way, beer was like a food to them.

An experienced "stamper" (beery or not) would have done it right in his sleep. More likely someone illiterate or maybe the "kid" or "new guy" from the way those numbers are reversed. Put the new guy on a simple job but you can bet somebody checked his work and chewed him out for making dumb mistakes like this. Some guys started working there at age 16.

Or maybe a blind guy? That's a joke, altho they did have a blind woman on the job who inspected bearing smoothness by touch.

[HarleyCreation]

Same bike, some 14's and all thirteen's had each cylinder and case stamped this way. I know of another 13 that is stamped in error like this case. I mentioned previously that the stamp guy must have been dyslexic.
Joe

Thanks for the info on the 1913-14 double stamped jobs. I made a note on that.

[HarleyCreation]

Not much help

I bought this case some years ago,I was told it was from 1917.
it has the belly number B-111
anyone knows if it is form 17..?

http://s814.photobucket.com/albums/z...t=BILD0055.jpg

http://s814.photobucket.com/albums/z...t=BILD0057.jpg

Is the number just "21366" and nothing else? No letter?

If so, it doesn't match available H-D info.

After plain #10,000 (mid-1911), numbers should also have a letter. I don't see one here.

1917 singles should be marked "17S" "followed by the sequential motor number.

The belly number "B-111" tells us a little more. 1917 singles were belly marked "A7-1" and up thru alphabet. They still made singles in 1918 but I don't have the belly number data for that year. Can't say it's an 1918, but the belly number on yours suggests maybe not 1917.

[HarleyCreation]

Notice the error on motor number 4366E cylinders only. Originally both cylinders (not the engine cases) were stamped 4567E. Pay close attention to the hardware on the 4366E motor it never has been apart the hardware is crisp as new. The cylinders were obviously stamped after plating. Herb how do you like these photos?
Joe

Joe, I'm loving these photos!

Very interesting how they restamped "4366E".

I'm seeing that BOTH "1544E" and "4366E" fall under one of these two models:

Mod. 9E, Twin Chain, solo (two-wheeler)
Mod. 9G, Twin Chain, "three-wheel truck or forecar"

[23JDCA 808]

“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

[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.

[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]

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!

[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.

[Chris Haynes]

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

[rwm]

not an oddball # but a cool document

[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

[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.

[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?

[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...?