Motor

VIN Identification
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Wilbe29
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Motor

#1

Post by Wilbe29 »

I have 1957flh motor vin 57FLH3629 is there any way to tell what month it was made
1950Panhead
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Re: Motor

#2

Post by 1950Panhead »

They made 5616 panheads in 57, so 5616/12= 458 per month, 2629/458 = 5.7 which is late February.
This is an estimate as production went up and down to meet demand.
RUBONE
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Re: Motor

#3

Post by RUBONE »

You can tell from the date codes on the various components when they were cast, but not the actual build date. Production was heaviest in the beginning of a season as bikes were stockpiled to fill dealer orders and then dropped off as the season progressed. Things like engines and transmissions were built starting in late summer and whole bikes shipped starting in September with the highest number in the earliest months of production. The factory closed for a break between year model runs.
H-D did not save the build records.
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Re: Motor

#4

Post by Speeding Big Twin »

Wilbe, I have never seen anyone provide proof of how many 1957 model Pans were made. The Legend Begins, an official H-D publication, says 1579 FLs, 164 FLHs, 1259 FLFs and 2614 FLHFs for an alleged total of 5616. However, page 198 of that book states the info is not to be regarded as totally accurate. According to Bruce Palmer’s 1932–52 military editions (1998 and 2015), Legend records were compiled in 1978 by Midge Kimbell, William H Davidson’s secretary of many years, shortly before her retirement. But when Bruce spoke to her in 1994 she could not remember if the numbers were counted by model year or by calendar year.

In Palmer’s second edition 1937–64 book his overall total for 1957 model Panheads is similar to Legend but he also says his amount is an approximate with a +/- 100 accuracy. How he reached that conclusion I do not know. And when I look at Palmer’s Panhead amounts for 1948–56 and 1958–64 I see other problems. Some of his figures are contradicted by a Connecticut police document dated 1981 although other pieces of that same Conn literature are known to be incorrect so the entire document has to be scrutinised. But even so, some Panhead serial numbers I have photos of are more in line with Connecticut totals than they are with Palmer’s figures. Another model year of interest is 1951 because Palmer’s Panhead figure is way above Legend so I am left wondering where Palmer got his information from and exactly what evidence he has.
Eric
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