Help - Senior Moment

All things K & Sportster

Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby EKHKHK56 » Sat Oct 10, 2015 5:22 am

The D stands for Duplicate replacement case. When you blew your cases up the dealer would stamp the new ones you would buy with a D for Duplicate and add your VIN number also. This is how I always understood it. Erik
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby EKHKHK56 » Sat Oct 10, 2015 5:24 am

You can also see that they used pre 1952 dealer stamps on Joe S` Case Vin. Erik K
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby thefrenchowl » Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:04 pm

It could also be that there was mod A, then B, then C like mine, so next letter available is D

; - )

So new can of worms, what were A and B????

I only say this cause I've never seen the word Duplicate in any HD books...

Thanks for the rider's book shots, Jerry, it is quite astounding!!! Or maybe a guy somewhere used a KH riders book to record tecky stuff from his KR!!!

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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby EKHKHK56 » Sat Oct 10, 2015 2:05 pm

I`ll go do some investigating on this, have a couple ideas.. senior moments= just got in on the red eye earlier, had an awesome visit with Joe Leonard & Cole Foster. Joe is as vibrant as ever, it was so great visiting him again. His star is shining brightly. #1 gets out with the boys now and then for coffee and to see and occasional race. Its good too be home, where a traffic jam is three cars trying to pass a motorhome. :) Erik K
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby JerrryR » Sat Oct 10, 2015 6:00 pm

My guess would be that there is not an "A" or "B" stamp by the VINs to identify some feature. I believe the "D" simply stood for dealer and I suspect Patrick is right and that the "C" stands for a close ratio gear set. I do have the image of a case with an "S" on it so if they were going through the alphabet there would be a whole lot of other cases with a whole lot of other letters?
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby EKHKHK56 » Sat Oct 10, 2015 7:02 pm

OK according to racer, tuner, builder Marsh Runyon the Ds were replacement case marks. The Ks and KRs all came with stock gears and close ratio ones were a self installed option. Many racers would use a C stamp to designate if that engine, one of many on the shelf, had a close ratio set installed. Back to the WR era even, then stamped on the trans case of course. Erik K
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby JerrryR » Sat Oct 10, 2015 7:18 pm

Thanks Erik,
Now all we have to figure out is what does a "S" stamping indicate?
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby dr dick » Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:31 pm

JerrryR wrote:Thanks Erik,
Now all we have to figure out is what does a "S" stamping indicate?
JerryR


i need to be the devils advocate regarding stampings being relating to phonic interpretation.
in order to do that can we assume all stamping on cases are factory?
that would be stupid. (is that what the updside-down "s" stands for?).
i know lots of guys who added stamped marks on and in their bikes, for thier own reasons, some visible some not.

hd documents that straight dowel replacement cases, for earlier taper or no door cases, are stamped with a D below the serial.
reading that as phonic has no factual basis ive ever found.

heres another example:
when hd beefed the c.s third gear they stamped it with a "4".
there was documentation for it.
what does that "4" mean? the material is no longer 6xxx steel, its a now 4xxx steel?
without any backup documentation, thats to large a leap of faith for me.
instead i believe it means if your gear has a 4 its the improved version. period.

one of the things that has made site so refreshing is that documentation ruled.
conjecture, its important in discussion, but lets not allow it to steer our quest,
instead lets stay true to what we can prove, or at least to what long timers have observed.
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby EKHKHK56 » Sun Oct 11, 2015 2:16 am

Bottom line is the D cases means they ARE duplicate or replacement or whatever you want to call them. Who can say if they were a code for a word like the C for Close ratio Marsh verified as being used on racing machines for a long time up to and including Ks. If you are not familiar with him, Marsh was building Joe`s KRs in the mid 50s after Sifton retired from racing to concentrate on the cam grinding aspect of his business. 1957 Championship and runner up 58 by 1 point. Anything he tells me is straight up, or if he doesn't know like any true wrench he would be the first to say that. I`ve been building Ks since the 70s, not very long compared to you old guys ;) but with around 20 of them I have noticed a few facts and do try to go by the facts that the actual parts present, of course. Erik K
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Re: Help - Senior Moment

Postby sportsterpaul » Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:38 am

Pure guess but could "S" stand for salvage title? So that the bike was stolen, went on the hot sheet, but then recovered. Did any state DMV stamp cases?

And my personal belief is that C stands for "Canadian" where Harley sent all the porous and badly-machined cases once the boxes marked "ship to Alaska" overflowed.
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