1948 Chief Headlight

[Hippy]

Howdy All, I have a 48 Chief that we finished restoration of last august and it was judged at Jefferson. I had a headlight from Staklite that was supposed to be an exact repro of the 48 light. I was told at judging that it was absolutely not correct and docked 2 points. After contacting Mr Stark, I was told that there were 2 styles of headlight used in 48 and the one i have is an exact copy of one of the types. It has a hole for the wiring to go into the headlight instead of the block that the wires screw to. Due to the new rule about not being able to advertize your AMCA score when selling your bike, i will probably never have it judged again but am curious about that light. What do ya'll think. Thanks Steve

[Mark Jennings]

Hi Steve, I have never heard of that type of headlight on a 48 Chief. My 48 and all other 48`s I have seen have the connecting block. My 50 Arrow has a hole in the bottom for the wires to pass through and I know that headlight is original. I think they are feeding you a line about there being two types but maybe someone out there has more information. If I am wrong then I stand corrected and learned something new. Mark

[gsottl]

Attached some pictures of what I think is a correct headlight for 1948 - the only type I have seen on these bikes as well. ´41 and ´42 Indians had a headlamp with the same shape, but with the socket some closer to the bezel (about the position of the connector block on the later ones) and with an oval hole in this socket through which the cables were going.

Can anybody tell me what the original brand and type of "Sealed Beam" is? There are so many manufacturers that produced almost the same headlight "bulbs".

Cheers,
gsottl

[gsottl]

correct 1941-42 headlight to compare (this bike has a 1940 and earlier horn)

[exeric]

It is my understanding that '41,'42, and '48 and later Chiefs used the Deitz headlight. '43-'47 used the Motolamp. Even the Motolamp could be had with a sealed beam. I have an old Deitz bucket with the bakelite junction block that came with a 7" G.E. "All Weather" sealed beam element.

[gsottl]

Both headlamps shown above are Dietz-Style - I am not sure if they were exclusively made my Dietz?

To my understanding all Moto-Lamps originally had Moto-Lamp lenses and a seperate reflector. Of course Sealed Beams were used in Motolamp shells, but I am quite convinced not from the factory.

As far as I have seen on original bikes and pictures the bezel on 1941-42 had a rivited cadmium plated clamp. The later versions had the holes for the clamp-screw integrated in the ring.

Cheers,
gsottl