Mystery of the Day - Fork Panel Cover

Production K Models

Mystery of the Day - Fork Panel Cover

Postby hennesse » Sat Aug 16, 2014 2:21 pm

Today's mystery is the Fork Panel Cover (over the speedo and switches)

The 1954 Spare Parts Catalog lists:
  • 46298-52 - Fork Panel Cover (Replaced by 46298-52A)
  • 46298-52A - Fork Panel Cover - 52 to 54

When did it change, and what's the difference?
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Re: Mystery of the Day - Fork Panel Cover

Postby 55khkjoe » Sun Aug 17, 2014 7:08 am

early 52-53 maybe early 54 triple trees had a rake to them. Some time in 54 Harley started playing with the rake on them, there are numerous top trees that have factory welds on them until they got it right. This increased the width front to back on the top tree. Harleys cure was to notch out the back cover. Also they got rid of the raised flipper stop on the top cover and a re-designed fork stem nut and sleeve and spacer and in 55 a new damper spacer with loc tab.
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Re: Mystery of the Day - Fork Panel Cover

Postby John R » Sun Aug 17, 2014 5:30 pm

Hi Dave,

These pictures may help.

52-53 k speedo - lr.JPG
52-56 speedo face in 52-53 panel
52-53 k speedo - lr.JPG (111.3 KiB) Viewed 14629 times


57-58 xl speedo - lr.JPG
57-58 speedo in 54-58 panel
57-58 xl speedo - lr.JPG (107.91 KiB) Viewed 14629 times


Cheers!

John
Last edited by John R on Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mystery of the Day - Fork Panel Cover

Postby 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
20140817_135021.jpg
Comparison of -52 and -52A fork panel cover
20140817_135021.jpg (106.67 KiB) Viewed 14617 times
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Re: Mystery of the Day - Fork Panel Cover

Postby EKHKHK56 » Sun Aug 17, 2014 9:13 pm

John's K Speedo is completely accurate for all Ks 52-56 as viewed. Other changes are hidden, such as a dampener added and Rubber mounting. On the 57-58 John's is perfect also, however I have seen two different colored Tenth wheels on these.
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New technical page

Postby hennesse » Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:54 am

There's a new web page over in the Technical section about speedometers. Please click on the "Technical" link on the top of this page and take a look to make sure I transcribed everything correctly. Also, I need some help on the mid-1960's transition from the AC speedo to "the other one".

I'll try and get some technical pages for headlight and fork panels going soon!

Thanks for your help.
Dave
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Re: Mystery of the Day - Fork Panel Cover

Postby JerrryR » Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:31 am

Hi, Just to add a few comments to Joe's post, I believe Harley changed the top tin at VIN 2250 in 1954. I believe this is when they went from the lower & top tree set up with the -52 bottom tree casting number to the -52A casting. In addition it appears as though Harley didn't just modify/re-weld the early top tree to use past VIN 2250 but as recently pointed out to me by the "B" brothers from Minnesota they also modified/re-welded & bent the lower -52 trees to use as -52A bottom trees. Harley like the pig farmers didn't let anything go to waist. It's possible that someone with a 54K with a VIN not to far past 2250 could either have a -52A neck casting frame or a -52 that was factory cut, raked and re-welded along with either the newer top tree or an older top tree that the factory cut, modified and re-welded along with a lower tree that is either the newer -52A casting or a factory cut, bent and re-welded earlier -52 tree. You could have an original bike that someone might think on close inspection had some serious damage and repairs made.
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