War time Lucas dating code

[rewdco]

Dear members,

I don't know if this is the right forum, because I don't know where I will find more Lucas electrical components: Softskin, Carrier or Armour? Anyway, here's my question:

All “large” Lucas items (magneto, dynamo, ...) have a dating code stamped on them (or on an identification plate in case of the magneto). This code can “easily” be dechiphered:
I did find an article on the internet (can’t remember where exactely, but it was about Lucas car components…) saying that the Lucas code is WEEK-YEAR. I have been checking all my Lucas stuff for my 1960’s Minis, and I found numbers ranging from 1 untill 50. (268, 3669, 174, 0178, 4876, 1168, 166, 1677, 0467, 5077, 4275). I think it is indeed reasonnable to assume that this Lucas code is WEEK-YEAR.

But when I do the same exercise for pre 1960’s motorcycle stuff, for which I haven’t got that many examples unfortunately, the first number is always smaller than 13. (1252, 1150, 1051). Would this mean that around that time, the system changed from a MONTH to a WEEK code? Thus for the early post war period, the Lucas code would be MONTH-YEAR.

If we consider that electrical components became available at the beginning of the 30’s, I think it is logical that during this first decade, only the last digit of the year was used (eg. 4 in stead of 34 or 1934). But of course, with the turning of the decade, the last two digits became compulsory, to avoid confusion with the years from the previous decade… On this year’s Beaulieu Autojumble, I took some pictures of early Lucas components. One was stamped “34”, which would mean “March ‘34”, “98” would mean “September ‘38”, but then there was a number “335”: “March ‘35”? Or would it have been a WEEK code anyway? I think that the person who stamped this number was already looking a few years ahead, hence “35” for 1935…

Does anybody know what the exact Lucas dating code was during the war years? Well, most of the original equipment magneto’s and dynamo’s will have been replaced by now anyway…



Cheers,
Jan

[Mike Kelly]

jan

The 1950 Land Rover here has the date as MONTH / YEAR stamped on the LUCAS components , as in your 11 50 example .

The Solex 32 PBI-2 carby also has a year stamp on it . The radiator is month / year also , on a little circular tag on the top tank .

If you think Motorcycle owners are pedantic ... try the series 1 Land Rover forum... they were discussing how many holes are in the original dunlopillo seat squab foam , and how deep the holes were etc., ' rivet counters ' !

Mike

[rewdco]

If you think Motorcycle owners are pedantic ... try the series 1 Land Rover forum... they were discussing how many holes are in the original dunlopillo seat squab foam , and how deep the holes were etc., ' rivet counters ' !

Thanks for this information Mike. By the way, I'm not a "rivet counter", merely a "numbers nerd" . These number-codes can be useful for determining a (military) vehicle's age. I know that at least during the 1960's and 1970's, there's also a dating code on the windows of the British Leyland built cars, although I've never looked up this code (I suppose that this can be extrapolated to other makes and decades as well). Anything like this on CMP's or other MV's I wonder?

Cheers,
Jan

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by rewdco
Thanks for this information Mike. By the way, I'm not a "rivet counter", merely a "numbers nerd" . These number-codes can be useful for determining a (military) vehicle's age. I know that at least during the 1960's and 1970's, there's also a dating code on the windows of the British Leyland built cars, although I've never looked up this code

Hi Jan,

I have also used this Lucas date code to check a vehicles age, but over a long life these parts could have been changed. Another point is that the parts could have been in stock for some time before the vehicle was built, unlike today with the "just in time" approach to stock delivery. The year is more important than the month or week, because of the above reasons.

The date code on glass was not just on BL cars, it was used by Triplex on all their glass at the time and was dated by the position of a dot above or below a letter of the word Triplex. I cannot remember the code now, but have seen it written somewhere.