Johnsons made in peterboro

[opposedtwin]

I knew johnsons were made in Peterboro, Ontario in the 30s, but here’s an example of a 1953 QD-14 made there. The thing that threw me off was the serial number. By this time they were over a million motors produced so seven digits, but this one had only 6 digits. Then I noticed the last 2 digits were hand stamped.

What more can any of you tell me aboot thid motor? (Pun intended)

Thanks!
Scott

[Mumbles]

The Canadian and American factories used two different numbering systems. Since the Peterborough factory didn’t start production until the late twenty’s or so, the S/N’s for Canadian built motors were much lower than same year US built motors.

[outbdnut2]

Those last two digits are a different font so it looks like someone could have altered the serial number. Do you suppose it could have been stolen at some time?
Dave

[Mumbles]

I noticed the different fonts to so it is possible the motor had a shady past. Especially since it ended up in another country. Over the years I’ve come across quite a few motors with the ID plates missing. The Big Twin/RD motors with missing plates really make me suspicious as the rivets holding them on are next to impossible to get at without a real effort.

I have a bunch of old OMC bulletins somewhere and periodically they would send out a list of stolen motors to dealers. Might be worth browsing thru them sometime.

[opposedtwin]

I bought this motor from a Canadian aomci member at Tomahawk a few years ago.

[outbdnut2]

I also have a couple of motors with questionable or missing IDs. One of them, a 1957 35 HP RD, has a damaged ID plate, a missing welch plug ID, an Evinrude Lark gray-colored engine block, the muffler on the carb missing, and the outside brush-painted in a color “close” to Holiday Bronze – maybe to make it look a bit different for ID purposes.. Could have been stolen at some time in its life, or could be a “Franken motor” put together from a few parts motors by somebody like us? I’ve often wondered how many times a stolen motor changes hands before it ends up with one of us?
Dave

[PHILIP BUDNE]

outbdnut2 wrote:

Those last two digits are a different font so it looks like someone could have altered the serial number. Do you suppose it could have been stolen at some time?
Dave

The full serial number is in range for 1953 Canadian manufacture, which matches the model number, no?

I’m wondering if they didn’t have a stamping machine which could produce sequentially numbered tags, so they stamped out batches of 100 with the leading digits, and then added the last two digits latter.

http://www.omc-boats.org
http://www.aerocraft-boats.org

[crosbyman]

and the million dollar question… does it run ? 🙂

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[adam1961]

It is odd that the last two digits are hand stamped.
The serial number tags were ordered from a different supplier. They came in batches, with the serial numbers pre-stamped. I would think that if there was a stamping error, the supplier would have just replaced the tag.
A mystery that we will probably never know the real answer to.

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