Looking for information on 1966 FL production run

[Pete Engelman]

I have inquired about my 1966 FL with the HD museum in Milwaukee. They said their files for this year were destroyed. The bike was originally commissioned to the Vancouver PD Canada. I spoke with a Vancouver PD officer of the day. He stated they received 10 1966 FL's late in 1966.
I'm on the hunt for a set of date correct heads or a front head but am unsure of the month the bike was built. It has the 5 digit sequence number 66FL12 * * * so my thoughts are it may have been built in the 3rd quarter of 66. My rear head was built in 11-65 which I hope is correct the front is 71 irrelevant
I'm trying to find out the beginning and end of the 1966 FL model production run and when these bikes were initially shipped out to the dealers.
Does anyone know where I could access this or any other info about my bike.
Thanks
Pete:::::::::::::::::::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear Pete, the Harley black book shows 2175 FL models and 5625 FLH models built that year, with 1150 BTH models, whatever they are. Engine numbers for Big Twins would have been interleaved, but 12000 is a real high engine number so presumably built late in the model year, which maybe ran say August '65 to July '66. Check Bruce Palmer's books as there are factory date codes on frames too. I'm told all the records went in the dumpster in the AMF years, so much detail may be unknowable at this distance. Maybe Police bikes were like some export bikes, where Harley used up odd stuff and made a deal to get rid of it. I would not lose too much sleep over head date codes, and you may even risk erroneously replacing original parts which were on this machine.

[Pete Engelman]

Thank you Steve. Yes I have decided to use the rear head but would like to find a front head from 11-65 as well to make a matching set. I thought the bike was a late model. I spoke with a VanPD bike officer of the day and he said the PD received 10 1966 FL's late in 1966 so I thought it was likely build in the 3rd quarter of production
Pete:::::;;;;;;;;;

[Rubone]

12000 is 5000 units into production. The odd/even coding used only even VINs in '68. And heads are often mismatched by sevral months, they didn't bother with pairs, and they got mixed up as sub assemblies.

[Speeding Big Twin]

Pete, serial numbers (SNs) for 1966 Shovels (FL/FLH) began at 2000 due to the 1960–69 even-odd code.

The highest authentic-looking 66 Shovel SNs in my photo collection are 180++. These are consistent with the high numbers in two ranges I have regarding 1966 SNs. One range was posted on another forum and the other range is from a booklet which seems to have been printed in 1986. As with all such ranges/booklets/documents etc, initially I was sceptical re the SN info but on this occasion the high number appears to be fairly accurate, at least according to my photo collection thus far.
Eric

[Pete Engelman]

Robbie and Eric thanks for your help guys.
I did some math with your comments and the sequence numbers and think my bike may have been build around the 248th day of production if the Sportys didn't interfere with the big twin production line. I would venture to guess the assembly line ran 7 days a week. Saying this it was likely built in mid February (late 3rd quarter) if the 1967 models came out in June.
Thanks again
Pete:::::::::::;;;;

[Rubone]

They were built in batches, not so many per day. And special orders were generally later in the season, early season they tried to stockpile standard models for filling early dealer orders for the floor. Dividing production by days doesn't work. And they didn't work 7 days or even 12 months..

[Speeding Big Twin]

Pete, sorry if I misled you with my post about the highest authentic-looking 66 Shovel SNs in my photo collection. It was just to give you an idea how many were produced. I agree with Robbie in that they were built in batches, not so many per day.

Steve mentioned frame date codes and that’s a good place to start. As an example, on this type of swingarm frame, date code A6 means the frame was made in January 1966. (B would be February, etc.)
Eric

[vph-d]

The new models were released in September. Did H-D customer service tell you they had no records for all of 66? I've had good luck getting build date info on a 65, 69, and a 73 from them.
VPH-D