by hennesse » Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:45 pm
John,
Just go ahead and ruin my day - I now know I have a 52-53 panel cover on my 54. Well, this pretty much confirms that my bike is a 1954 engine in a 1952-1953 frame. In fact, very early 1952 - from Jerry Raino's swingarm chart, I have a version 1 swingarm, which he theorizes was used for the first half of 1952. Generic 52-53 frame. Front end has the 1-piece bushing under the steering damper. The bike was XLCH-ized with rubber fork boots and XLCH top tube covers - but the rubber boots fortuitously are correct (I hope, everything else is wrong) for the 54. I seem to remember seeing the 52-53 style lower tube cover in one of the boxes of parts, but I didn't see them on my last visit to the shed. Will have to look again tomorrow.
Attached is a comparison photo sent to me via email from one of the group (not sure if he doesn't want his name published or not).
Your photos have brought up two other subjects - headlight body and speedometer.
There's only one headlight body listed in the Spare Parts Catalog (at least the ones I have). But from your photos, and from examining the photos in the Gallery section, it appears that the 1952-1953 headlights had the oil/gen lamps at the front of the headlight body, while the 54-and later ones are in the middle of the body. N'est-ce pas?
Again, looking at the Gallery photos, and the Spare Parts Catalogs, it appears there are xxx different Speedometers through 1958!!!
Bator 1952 K
1952-1954 - light green numbers on greenish background, fat green needle -- small mounting tabs on the sides -- black on white odometer miles, red on white odometer tenths
Yours, Sherman 54 KHK, Hennessey 54 KH
1952-1954 - light green numbers on greenish background, fat red needle -- small mounting tabs on the sides -- white on black odometer miles, red on black odometer tenths
Streett 55KH
1955-1956 - light green numbers on greenish background, fat red needle -- long mounting tabs for rubber-mounts -- white on black odometer miles, red on black odometer tenths
Yours and Reynolds 57 XLA
1957-1958 - black numbers on white-ish background, thin red needle -- long mounting tabs for rubber-mounts -- black on white odometer miles, white on black odometer tenths
Anonymous 58 XL
1957-1958 - black numbers on white-ish background, thin red needle -- long mounting tabs for rubber-mounts -- white on black odometer miles, red on black odometer tenths
Note: all have the Harley-Davidson script in the same color as the main numbers
Are all these variations correct ???
(Jeez, looks like a new web page about to happen)
- Attachments
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- Comparison of -52 and -52A fork panel cover
- 20140817_135021.jpg (106.67 KiB) Viewed 14617 times