1959 XLH Coil

[hennesse]

Yes, the spark coil studs changed from 5/16 coarse to 3/8 fine in 1955 - regardless of which frame was used ***. My 1954 KH has the 5/16 studs, and the holes in the spark coil are 5/16. I believe this coil is original to the bike. My best guess is that there was an undocumented change (3/8 holes) in the spark coil bracket in 1955 - if you were to find a NOS 32609-52 coil, the holes might be either size, depending on when it was produced.

*** Jerry's frame research (over in Technical) indicates that there were 3 frames used in 1955 - frames with re-raked -52 head castings, frames with -52A head castings, and frames with -55 head castings - but all of them had the 3/8 fine coil mounts. Apparently the 5/16 coarse coil mounts were a big problem.

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"Police bikes" - What I mean by this is bikes with Police radio equipment. Knuckleheads and Panheads (and Shovelheads) came with a large carrier for the radio and antenna, a much higher output generator, a different regulator, a larger battery, different coil and spark plug wires, etc. To my knowledge, none of the K-models or Sportsters were equipped with radio gear. On our Literature page, down at the very bottom, is a section called "Historic Photographs" which show some KHs in use in the Netherlands.

Some foreign governments may have purchased/received standard Sportsters, and used them for Police work - typically for parade duty, but that doesn't make them "Police bikes". Besides the 1957 military XLAs, it appears that during the early 1960s, some Sportsters - some marked XLA, others XLB, were sold to foreign governments. Harley says they have no records of these, and they were probably sold to certain US Government agencies, which then transferred them to the foreign governments. Surfing around the web gives us some pretty iffy reports/pictures of XLA/XLBs. Whether truly XLA/XLB or not, they all look like pretty standard Sportsters.

[EKHKHK56]

On my 52 #RioBluePaint one stud is longer than the other.

[Ferrous_Head]

I have actually owned an a 1962 XLB and have seen two others in the flesh, both 1960 bike. Harley DID (does ?) have information on them, just not collectively.
I managed to contact Kathy Olenski who was the research officer back when I owned the bike. Naybe 8years ago now. Initially she denied there was ever such a beast as an XLB. She tried to persuade me I was mistaking an "R" for a "B". But eventually she used the engine number I supplied to pull the build sheet for the bike. Lo and behold, you learn something every day. My bike was actually built as an xlb in November 191,
My research leads me to believe the Indonesian Air Force purchased about 24 of those bikes in 1960. I suspect that they purchased a few more as replacements in 1962.
The bikes were for "Parade Duty" and came with driving lights, bubble bags and the luggage rack. I would have thought that parade duty would mean riding with all lights on and siren often blaring so there would have been extra drain on the stock battery.
But I am not sure that they had radios. I suspect they would have BUT, I've seen no evidence they used the air cooled genny so possibly not.
Unfortunatly I did not get Kathy to send me a copy of the build sheet. Presumably they still have it. But in any case HD DID make XLB's. I'm not sure why people (including Kathie) find that hard to accept.
I have often thought the controversy over the "c' in XLC and XLCH was nonsense. HD originally made the XL and derivatives followed. The Army had always been an important customer for HD so an XLA was always going to be on the cards. It would make sense that the next derivative model then would be an XLB. After that I would have made the next ine an XLC.
But that's just my opinion and almost no one else agrees with me preferring either "competition" (but not Racing ?) or "California".

Probably because the ABC thing is too logical for HD and they just prefer to think they have a "Competition Hot" (Thank you Mr. Green.) I doubt anyone likes the "California" moniker as we all know that means LESS performance.

[EKHKHK56]

Yes, but they have California Coast and California Girls...haha.. I have an Olive Drab rear Brake Drum and Oil Tank. Factory paint. Must be 57XLA

[EKHKHK56]

So bottom stud is 1/4" longer on 52K.

[thefrenchowl]

For the St Thomases and non believers...

XLA with radio...



South Vietnamese Police XLB, not XLA and not civilian model: special factory all green paint scheme:



About thirty of them in parade mode:



Patrick

[EKHKHK56]

A friend of mine has a S Vietnamese 56KHK Parade Bike that was bought there.