S&S Cycle - How to identify S&S Flywheel and Crankcases

Hello, my name is Dennis Schafer at SNS cycle. You've probably heard someone use the expression. It's all Greek to me, this somewhat odd saying grew out of the fact that in the past a language like Greek was known by few people, the common man had little need to learn to read or speak the language. Today. It's meant as a humorous expression and is often used when describing things or situations that people don't understand the phrase. It's all Greek to me can be true in the motorcycle world. When you look at the numbers and letters that have been placed on your cran case, this seemingly jumbled collection of numbers and letters looks like something a child put together. So why are these so important? And what does it mean to you when the bike comes into your dealership for service? In this video, we will take a look at S and SS identification stampings for engine assemblies, crank case sets and complete fly wheel assemblies, crank cases and fly wheels are both marked using a process called pin stamping. Here is a crank case being pin stamped on our assembly line at our Viola Wisconsin facility. A couple of special things to note about Crank's serial numbers as we begin, the asterisks that bracket, the serial number protect it from being altered. SNS engine codes change with their fiscal year at the end of September, not the calendar year, there are some letter characters that we don't use because they look too much like numbers or other letters. These include IOQ and V. A large number of calls come into our technical and customer service department from owners who are unsure if the engine is an S MS engine built at our factory in Viola or a combination of individually purchased parts used to fabricate an engine. Elsewhere, many incoming calls are from new owners who want to verify the size of the engine. Calling for information with the engine crank case and or fly wheel. Serial numbers will really help give us the opportunity to pinpoint all the key details including build information, displacement or stroke model year and any service history. The process of identifying engines or individual components is not as uniform and the sequences vary from one manufacturer to another on SNS engines. The engines serial number is located on both the left and right crank case heads. This is a typical example of a crank case serial number. The first character is a letter and it designates the year of the engine. Here are some examples of the sequence of letter codes used over the years. A complete listing can be found in our current catalog. The next character. The second one is also a letter and it identifies the style of crank case being used. Characters three through seven are numbers. This is the sequential number of engines and crane cases built with this particular style. Looking again at our example, style code tells us that this is a four inch four special applications crank case. The build sequence code tells us that it was the 251st crank case and or engine of that type built in fiscal year 2011. Finally, the flywheel diameter code in our example, the eighth and final character can again be a letter or no stamping at all. This final character identifies the diameter of the flywheel. Our example code is X. The engine has the smaller eight and one quarter inch diameter fly wheels inside that pretty much covers our discussion of the engine cran case numbering. Remember that the information we've covered in this video and the code identification charts are in the current catalog for future reference. Let's move inside the engine and turn our attention to the coding found on SNS flywheel assemblies. SNS places the flywheel serial number on both the left and right halves. It is located in a position where it will not be removed during the machining and balancing of the flywheel halves faces servicing tip on evolution and earlier engines. The flywheel code can be seen through the timing hale and this assembly is not necessary to view the serial number. The code may look like Greek because it will be upside down when viewed through the timing hole just like the engine or crank case. The flywheel serial code is a mix of letter and numbered characters. The first sequence is called the serial number. From the sequence. SNS can determine when the fly wheels were made when and to whom they were sold Also how the fly wheels were originally balanced. An important note. However, you must contact SNS with the serial code for this information. It is not found in any publication. The next character is a number and it will tell you the length of the stroke that this flywheel set was built with SNS builds fly wheels with many different stroke lengths and this is to meet the wide range of performance demands from our customers. There are too many to list here, but the charts found in the catalog will permit you to pinpoint which stroke length the engine has. The next two character stampings are letters, these identified the year grouping. This chart illustrates the many year codes used for the various motorcycle groupings over the years. Remember the engine code that identified the fly wheel diameter. That same code is used again as the final character to identify the flywheels diameter. So I hope we've given you some insight into deciphering the SNS system of coding and identifying power train components. It may help you to identify a customer's vehicle, order the correct parts for his or her engine or even correctly identify the type and age of parts present when restoring a vintage vehicle. That's it for. Now, we'll see you on the road.