Harley oil can from the 1940s

[Gary7]

I went up to the Wheels Through Time museum today and one of the displays with vintage oil cans caught my eye. These two oil cans are identical, one is showing the front label while the other is showing the side. Note the "use in motor and transmission," indicating that Harley's recommending their Syn3 oil for both the engine and tranny is nothing new for them. I'd say these cans are from the 40s and they were clearly recommending the same oil for the engine and transmission way back then.

[Serg06]

To cool. great find. Thanks for sharing.

[Dave63]

Originally Posted by Gary7

These two oil cans are identical, one is showing the front label while the other is showing the side. Note the "use in motor and transmission," indicating that Harley's recommending their Syn3 oil for both the engine and tranny is nothing new for them. I'd say these cans are from the 40s and they were clearly recommending the same oil for the engine and transmission way back then.

You're correct. Engine oil trickled into the primary to lube the chain, and it was also used in the trans. As it was, all the way up to the 80's in shovelheads. It was 70wt motor oil.

It even had it's own feed line to drip oil onto the chain. You're right......nothing new.

[CHIPMAKER]

are they still open, I thought they were going to move out west.

[Gary7]

Originally Posted by CHIPMAKER

are they still open, I thought they were going to move out west.

I talked to Dale about that. He has decided to stay in Maggie Valley and only open the museum to the public for one or two weekends a month. You have to check their web site to see when they are going to be open. For August they are only open this weekend, and then they are going to be open from next Tuesday right through to next Sunday.

[fatty239]

[quote=Gary7;1656734]I went up to the Wheels Through Time museum today and one of the displays with vintage oil cans caught my eye. These two oil cans are identical, one is showing the front label while the other is showing the side. Note the "use in motor and transmission," indicating that Harley's recommending their Syn3 oil for both the engine and tranny is nothing new for them. I'd say these cans are from the 40s and they were clearly recommending the same oil for the engine and transmission way back then.

Thanks for the info...fatty

[Gary7]

I went back to Wheels Through Time this past Sunday. A buddy of mine and I rode up there on our bikes. 222 miles round trip. It was a lot of fun. (Pic below is my buddy. I took the pic. That's my Super Glide. He's riding a Suzuki C50. We were parked at a rest stop on the Blue Ride Parkway.)

I took a closer look at the oil cans this time and picked one up. It was still full of oil. The interesting thing I found was that Harley used to sell their grades of oil using SAE gear lube viscosity numbers. The grades this oil came in ranged from 75 to 140, which translates into motor oil grades of roughly 20 wt to 60 wt. The 75 was for winter and the 140 was for hot summer.