WLA -v- WLC -v- 46 WL

[old man emu]

I've been looking at the front brakes of the WLA, WLC and wondering about the 46WL.

The basic difference between the WLA and the WLC is that the WLC uses the UL brake assembly, although with a different part number. I've seen what is supposed to be a 46 WL in Europe that has what appears to be a UL brake assembly.

The question is: Did WL's from 1946 use the UL front brake assembly, or, since this bike may have been cobbled together at some time in the past, is it likely that the brake assembly on this bike was sourced from a spare parts pile?

The other thing that I wonder about is: With so many WLA's and WLC's in Europe at the end of 1945, did H-D sell any 46 WL's in Europe? Or did everyone grab abandoned bikes and parts and over the years tried to make them WL's?

Was the post-war distribution of WLA's and WLC's and the relative frequencies of each model in the present, due to the fact that the US Army operated from the southwest through France and the Canadians operated from Belgium and Holland into the northwest of Germany?

[RUBONE]

All WLs And WLAs used the smaller type brake assembly with the half hub regardless of year, through '52. Only the WLC and Servi-Cars used the Big Twin brake. No such thing as a factory 46WL with a Big Twin type brake.
I am not aware of any export production in '46 however there were a fair number of 46WLs sold domestically.

[panhead]

With so many WLA's and WLC's in Europe at the end of 1945, did H-D sell any 46 WL's in Europe?

Holland50.jpg (35.61 KiB) Viewed 1063 times

With so many left?

[Pascal]

To add to Panhead's post, also clearly visible in his pic; when the US Army left Holland at the end of WWII...WWII still wasn't over.
They still needed and used their WLA's.
The last to leave Holland by war's end were the armies of the Common Wealth (read; the Brit's, Canadians and some Polish in service of GB).
They used the WLC, that's why that's what we 'got'..

Nowadays, there are more WLA than WLC over here, mostly imported from France, Greece and lately Russia (and its former USSR-terratories like Ukraïn etc).

As Robbie already mentioned; NO WL(A) had the BT frontbreak-setup, if so it has been added/ converted later .
As you said yourself, the 46WL was not imported into Europe; we had plenty leftovers and there simply wasn't any money to buy anything new...

[old man emu]

According to the information here, http://www.theliberator.be/liberator6.htm, the total size of the range of WLC engine numbers was a 26,934. Whether this represents the total number of complete machines is uncertain. However, this is just 7,000 more than the total WLA production of Type III WLA in 1942/43. Little wonder that WLAs are the most common. Also, since WLCs were not Lend-Lease, I think that the Canadians would have taken most of their surviving machines back to Canada with them.

I was wondering why there were heaps of WLAs in Greece, until I learned that Greece was liberated by the Red Army, who had Lend-Lease bikes. Similarly with Poland.

[Pascal]

I think you got your facts wrong: Greece wasn't liberated by the Red Army...
There were two major guerilla movements within Greece during and after WWII.
THEY liberated Greece and both wanted leadership, resulting in a fierce civilwar just after 1945.
So Greece didn't got their WLA's from left-over Red Army supplies..

Both the US and Canada left their stuff in Europe on their way home.
It was paid for, worn out and the costs reshipping and restoring them would have been outragious.
They saw the devastation they left in Europe and it was decided to leave everything surplus behind.
Numbers of surplus WLA's from Italy and France were 'given' to Greece, and those returned in the 1980's to Northern Europe and some eventually to the US of A.
Both the french and the greece used the WLA well into the late 1970's, some even longer.

There are some 1500 45's in Holland nowadays, I'm not sure about the rest of the world.
It's estimated there are still some 5000 out there, not all complete..

[old man emu]

You are probably correct about Greece not being liberated by the Russians. More like the Germans withdrew in the face of the Russian threat. That is in now way diminishing the bravery of the Greek Resistance fighters who, while not being able to throw out the Germans, caused the Germans to allocate a lot of much needed men and material to that Front, thereby diminishing the numbers to counter the Russians.

You say that there are some 1500 WLAs in Holland, and there are lots of them and WLCs throughout Europe. On the other hand, I wonder how many of the German motorcycles are still around the place.

Getting back to my starting point, the bike that started my interest in front brakes has 42WLC#### stamped on the frame. This would be correct according to a Canadian Army directive of about 1944, introduced to ease accounting for equipment. It is known that the engine was replaced in 1946, and it is stamped this way:

Engine number2.jpg (66.15 KiB) Viewed 973 times

What do you make of it? Sorry about the angle

[Pascal]

If the frame was stamped with WLC, it's a WLC.
THAT would explain the BT frontbrake set-up.
The VIN shown looks ligit; those are factory fonts numbers.

[old man emu]

The VIN shown looks ligit; those are factory fonts numbers.

I am suspicious about the engine being a 46 build. I don't like the look of the first "4" in the year code.

[Pascal]

Look at these three different 4's in this '44 motor..;

s-l400.jpg (45.2 KiB) Viewed 958 times

The third looks exact like 'your' 46..
There were 45WL's and 46WL's...nothing strange about that

[Speeding Big Twin]

Re the WLC chart on the Liberator site, I’ve commented on it before. It says it was compiled from info in Palmer’s books but that’s not exactly true, partly because Liberator does not record the three ranges properly. For example it says 42WLC1000-42WLC4800 which indicates every machine in that range was a WLC but that’s wrong because some in that range were other models. Palmer explains more than once how SNs for each engine family were mixed together and he’s right. But the Liberator chart confuses the matter.

Instead of 42WLC1000-42WLC4800, I’d suggest 42+(++)1000-42+(++)4800. And I’d like to see the other two WLC ranges treated in the same manner.

I’ve also examined a 42WLC engine that is between Palmer’s ranges. I emailed him about it in 2013 but received no reply.


[/quote] I am suspicious about the engine being a 46 build. I don't like the look of the first "4" in the year code. [/quote]


A clearer photo would be a good idea but at this stage I can’t see anything wrong. What are the BNs? Left case date code? Any original documentation for the engine? It would be great if it started life as a WL-SP.

Why don’t you like the first 4? Looks like it has a serif across the base? Top should be open.
If you’re suspicious about the engine being a 46 build, do you think the first 4 was originally something else? And if so, what? For obvious reasons I wouldn’t expect it to have been 3 or lower and I wouldn’t expect it to have been 5 or higher.

Here are two examples for comparison.
Eric

46 WL 5+++.jpg (57.91 KiB) Viewed 940 times

46 WL.jpg (84.49 KiB) Viewed 940 times

[Pascal]

Thanks Eric,

I've got at least three examples of 42"WLC"1000-4800 which are actually WLA's..see pic 1
It's from the old Yahoo 42WLA-group..

Besides that, I've got a picture of 41WLA9351 case exceeding Palmer's estimate by at least 300...pic 2

[Speeding Big Twin]

Cheers Pascal. But does your first have five sequence characters: 2476*.
And your third is a replacement engine? What does its SN look like?

Between 1000 and 4800 I have one WLA and a few Gs. And Palmer records at least two WLAs: 2580 and 3634.

As well as the 41WLA you mentioned, I have three more 41WLAs that are higher than Palmer’s second range.
Eric