Bike Registry

[Mike Sal]

Gosh, I should have figured the "foot control" out.....I've been thinking about the automatics so much I forgot about the foot shift models.  Sorry about that.

What motor numbers do you have (& which ones go with which frames)? 
thanks,
Mike Sal

[oil-lamp]

Mike, ok here we go the blue bike has motor# m17154b, the 06606 bike will be getting motor# m14741b. I also have # m17231b that includes cylinder, points housing no hardware, and a flywheel. I also have a older block no visible # i hope this helps. I do know the frame I have that has no number will be tricked out with a snowmobile engine and raked stretched front forks.

[Mike Sal]

My wife cringes everytime she hears of someone with mulitple bikes.....she's afraid I'll catch the same disease (like I have on all the other projects around here).

The old crankcase with no number is interesting.  I thought all the engines had numbers.  One of the guys, slick, has a block which is stamped above the compression plate cover instead of the bottom & it's number is "205".

I started to plug your numbers into the data base & found one of the motor numbers already there....your the guy who bought the ebay motor last week!  What kind of condition is it in after you got it home?
Mike Sal

[oil-lamp]

Mike, funny you said that my wife says that my hobbies are our retirement fund. And yes I was the one seeing I've missed so many other motors I've tried to get. The motor looks to be in fair condition for its age. I will know more when I get it apart. I will also look closer at the un numbered block to see if I have just missed the number.

[oil-lamp]

Okay I looked at again in the daylight and here's the number H15380W and the one could be a "I". Hope this helps now.

[Mike Sal]

Thanks Reese.  An H motor is probably from an early post-war bike.
Mike Sal

[mywaymfg]

I too have this awful sickness your wife's speak of

[oil-lamp]

Mike here's the last frame number I have at this time. Its #14953 is all i see and that is the one that's done. Please let me know where it falls into the order I may have to buy a new plate for it. Thanks

[Mike Sal]

Reese, your frame was made 513 units after Tom Houston's (14440) and 296 units before mine (15249).  The concensus is your's is a '56 model. 

There's been no evidence found yet that the company made any effort at all to coordinate frame & motor numbers to model years.  I think they just grabbed what ever was on the shelf at the time & then documented the random numbers onto the invoices afterwards. 
Mike Sal

[oil-lamp]

This is a great fix I'm in the only reason I call it a 59 was that was the plate I could get. Does anybody have a spar 56 Texas platelaying around. I spent 5 months trying to get the last one. Maybe ghetto show in Smithville might have one.

[Mike Sal]

Do you currently have the bike registered as a '59?  I wouldn't loose any sleep over the delta.  When I first got my bike, Wayne thought it was  a 57 or 58 model, so I started the paperwork to title it as a '57.  Since then, I now know it's probably a '56, but I'm sure not going to go thru the hassle to try to change it now. 
Mike Sal

[oil-lamp]

No its not anything yet, its just something to keep me sane. Don't think is working all that well. 

[Mike Sal]

My wife keeps reminding me there are 3 studebakers waiting for me to finish everytime she sees me tinkering on the bike......

When my father-inlaw retired, he just went home & sat.  He quit fishing & hunting & everything.  He got really overweight & a heart attack took him out.  I have so many projects stacked up around here that my brain can't even conceive me being idle like that.....I need 6 more years before I can hopefully retire.....
Mike Sal

[kartjockey]

Hey Mike, I was reading the warranty and service procedures in the front and rear covers of the Servi-cycle parts catalog. It says that the company kept rebuilt engines. It makes you wonder if this could this be an answer to some to the mismatched confusion of numbers at times. Plus I wonder if that engine you ran across with only a '205' on it is somekind of a "service engine". After looking at small block chevy block numbers for 25 years I noticed that Chevy did this.  maybe the 205 is some kind of sequential number. And do you have an idea what the suffix letter means in the block numbers?

[Ricks]

I have noticed that the engine number suffix changed to a B when the engine case was changed to aluminum from Zinc Alloy.  This happened on the later 1949 Model L, but I don't know what the engine suffix was on those motors, as we have none in the database.

A second guess is that the inside of the engine case changed in 1952 to accept the new crankshaft and bearings, but I personally don't like this explanation as much as they changed the prefix to an "M".

Rick