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I just acquired a rolling basket this last summer and it falls within the month of non-matching VIN/EIN. Based on what I've read, my numbers have raised a few questions. VIN 7G488**H9 should be past the range of the non-matching bikes but my engine makes it a bit confusing. EIN 1479023*** is an 80 inch; 1979; built on 23rd day (1/23/79). That is from the date range that should be non-matching but the VIN production number is supposedly after the the non-matching bikes were done. The stamping seems to be factory as well.
"From 1970 to 1980 the VIN number could be found on both the frame and the engine and would match exactly with the exception of a few months in 1979 which was due to an idea by the factory to make them different. The idea was quickly killed after law enforcement notified Harley-Davidson that it made the bikes look stolen. The production date range was from 1/9/1979 to 2/7/1979. The VIN numbers affected are 43000H9 through 48199H9. The engine numbers where 10 digit numerical IDs."
On top of that, I ended up with a cowpie tx that supposedly came out late '79 on a January production bike.
Considering the bike was produced 40 years ago, there could be all sorts of mixing of parts. The tx definitely could fall under that category. The engine though came from that one month the numbers weren't matching. To think that it was mated to a later chassis seems unlikely. I've not found much ambiguity regarding the affected production dates/numbers so I don't assume there was an error in the production number range but that could explain it.
All that is to say, I have no paperwork and am trying to determine if I have an original engine/tx knowing it could never be "numbers matching"?
"From 1970 to 1980 the VIN number could be found on both the frame and the engine and would match exactly with the exception of a few months in 1979 which was due to an idea by the factory to make them different. The idea was quickly killed after law enforcement notified Harley-Davidson that it made the bikes look stolen. The production date range was from 1/9/1979 to 2/7/1979. The VIN numbers affected are 43000H9 through 48199H9. The engine numbers where 10 digit numerical IDs."
On top of that, I ended up with a cowpie tx that supposedly came out late '79 on a January production bike.
Considering the bike was produced 40 years ago, there could be all sorts of mixing of parts. The tx definitely could fall under that category. The engine though came from that one month the numbers weren't matching. To think that it was mated to a later chassis seems unlikely. I've not found much ambiguity regarding the affected production dates/numbers so I don't assume there was an error in the production number range but that could explain it.
All that is to say, I have no paperwork and am trying to determine if I have an original engine/tx knowing it could never be "numbers matching"?
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