48 Pan Production #s

[Breeze427]

Looking for info on 48FL Production #s .... Looking to purchase A 48 .... 48FL92xx.... Wanna Make Sure It's Legit..... Thanks

[exeric]

A picture of the engine number is what you need to post. I know people are hesitant to do that but the character font of the stamps is what determines a good motor number. If there is a good title, there is nothing to fear about posting the number, but if the character font is not correct to that year, a red flag goes up.

[exeric]

You should go to Chris Haynes site to see examples of good '48 motor numbers.

http://www.vintageamericanmotorcycles.com/main.php

[Rubone]

Here is a factory 48 number.
The only problem with Chris's site is that there are bogus numbers mixed in with the good ones and are not identified as such adding to the confusion of someone just learning about H-D numbers. He just need to add a description for folks who don't know.

[Breeze427]

looking for info on 48fl production #s .... Looking to purchase a 48 .... 48fl92xx.... Wanna make sure it's legit..... Thanks

48fl9285.....

[exeric]

The picture that Robbie posted shows what a good set of 1948 numbers look like. As I said before; it's not so much the number itself, as what the actual characters look like. That is an important part of what makes a 1948 Harley-Davidson worth the money.

[vph-d]

Production numbers for 48 ran to almost 13,000 machines, more or less, as there is no definitive count available. The condition of the serial number boss is possibly more important than the
numbers because some machines had their crankcases replaced by dealers who stamped legit numbers onto the new cases with the wrong stamps.
VPH-D

[kurly]

When checking motor numbers, Bruce Palmer's 1st edition (page 9) states belly numbers for 1948 should be 1 for 74", 2 for 61", 3 for 45", then the year 48 then hyphen and a sequential machining number. So a 74' Big twin panhead should be 148-####??? Is this a sure way of confirming legit numbers?

[c.o.]

When checking motor numbers, Bruce Palmer's 1st edition (page 9) states belly numbers for 1948 should be 1 for 74", 2 for 61", 3 for 45", then the year 48 then hyphen and a sequential machining number. So a 74' Big twin panhead should be 148-####??? Is this a sure way of confirming legit numbers?

If the belly numbers match, the cases were meant for each other originally. That won't help a screwed up number job on the boss of the left hand case. I would compare whatever numbers you may be concerned about to the photo that Robbie posted above. It's all about the font style of the stamp.

[Breeze427]

48 Vin# Does It Look Legit...

image.jpgimage.jpg

[exeric]

They look good to me.

[c.o.]

Me too.

If you scoop it, it would be cool to see the rest of the bike!

[MJW]

When checking motor numbers, Bruce Palmer's 1st edition (page 9) states belly numbers for 1948 should be 1 for 74", 2 for 61", 3 for 45", then the year 48 then hyphen and a sequential machining number. So a 74' Big twin panhead should be 148-####??? Is this a sure way of confirming legit numbers?

kurley, there were some exceptions to the one two three rule, for example my 51 pan belly number was 350-3170. I don't know why they messed with the rule, perhaps they had a FNG in charge of belly numbers briefly in 1950...Mike