Serial numbers

[Pickup46]

I am a newbee that just bought a 1946 Ford pickup and am very confused by its serial numbers (3). The serial # on the frame,glovebox & flywheelhousing all match but they start with *699Y<->995317* which is for a 1 ton & I have a 114" half ton. It also has a 4 speed trans. Does anyone know where I can go to get answers as to why this is? This is my 1st thread on this forum

[Bruce Lancaster]

It relates to the 4 speed...engine/trans assembly was stamped at the Rouge, apparently with truck designation for 4 speed. Chassis was numbered at assembly from the number on its powertrain.
Allied question...does your engine have double or single pulley water pumps?

[Pickup46]

It has 2 water pump pulleys

[40cpe]

Does each water pump pulley have one or two "V" grooves?

[Pickup46]

Sorry I misunderstood your question last night. Each pulley only has one groove.

[Bruce Lancaster]

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So it has passenger/commercial pumps, truck type 4 speed (controlling the serial number) and most likely an 11" clutch...confirm that by checking to see if your left leg is twice as muscular as the right. Obviously trans is original since it matches chassis, and as long as engine's a 59 there's not really any way to confirm if it's actually the original.
I don't know my commercials well, but I think the 4 speed was a normal special order factory option for commercial 1/2 ton. Ford supplied mounts and the special U joint stuff via the parts department to fit the lumps into all the passenger cars even, so the four speed can easily turn up even in places it wasn't optional.

[Capn John]

Try this guy! He's excellent!

http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/f...ialnumbers.htm

http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/t...prices-pg1.htm

http://vanpeltsales.com/

http://vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flath...ans-repair.htm

[blucar]

The serial numbers on the '46 Ford can be very confusing because of the "99" number in the serial number. Most published info for the '46 Fords, cars and Lt.trucks list the serial numbers as being 69xxxxxx, however, when Ford came out with the 239 CID engine in '39 they called it "99", therefore Ford used a "99" in the serial numbers of all vehicles that had the 239 CID engine through '47.. The 59AB engines are 239 CID.
I recently had a big go around with the DMV in Washington State because of this anomaly on a '46 Ford 2d sdn.

[Bruce Lancaster]

All 239's thrugh the 59A have 99 in the serial...'47 and 8 got the 7 or 8 added, looks liks some '46 got the year prefix too. And also along the way they got the A, M, T etc added in after the 99 to show what family of vehicles the engines were for. My '48 has 899A as the suffix, if the engine had headed into a Merc it would have an M...
The '48 als has the late patent plate with a small blank wher mine is stamped ED, indicating its export build at Edgewater plant. Then in '49 Ford modernized radically and started putting a lot more info on plates.

[Pickup46]

So, I think you are all telling me that the serial number system/code used in the 49's was not reliable or used consistently. So I probably have a 1946 half ton with the optional 4 speed, with a 1ton serial number set. Do you all agree? Thanks for the help.

[alanwoodieman]

took a 4 speed out of a 47 1/2 ton that was original to the truck, put in a 3 speed so it would be easier to drive. yes the trans-frame numbers were the same

[rotorwrench]

Commercial and truck information is sparse but folks on the barn and a few other truck related sites have been finding some sense to the way they identified the Ford pickups & trucks of the prewar and imediate post war period. Transmissions had a play in the matter as Bruce mentioned due to the mating of these parts at manufacture. Most 46 commercials would have been 99C or 699C if they had the standard light duty 3-speed center shift gearbox. Six cylinder jobs would have been G or H designation depending on year. Yours is just a bit different in that it had a non-standard engine/trans combo. The guys on the assembly line just stamped the same numbers on the frame as were on the engine/trans unit.

The numbering system was basic but you can still tell a few things about the vehicle from it. Now the Canadian Ford trucks are completely different so that's a whole other matter. In 1949 , changes started to happen with cars first but even some pickups had information stamped on the firewall depending on what plant they were assembled at. By 1951, most vehicles had a number plate somewhere with a VIN on it plus some body and manufacture information like trim and body color.

[Pickup46]

But I still ask, why does the serial # start with"*699Y" which is suppose to be for a 1 ton and this is a 114" half ton truck?

[JSeery]

Originally Posted by Pickup46

But I still ask, why does the serial # start with"*699Y" which is suppose to be for a 1 ton and this is a 114" half ton truck?

Because Ford serial numbers started with the engine/transmission combination. The numbers were assigned to the transmissions. The 4-speed was normally used in larger trucks and only available in the smaller ones as a "special" order. Because of the small number of special order 4-speeds Ford did not want to set up a separate line operation just to assign a different serial number for this limited number of 4-speeds. When the engines/transmission combination was installed in the chassis the transmission numbers were transferred to the frames. And that became the vehicle serial number.

The vehicle serial number is actually the engine/transmission serial number on the early Fords. So, if a 1 ton engine/transmission is installed on the production line, then it has that serial number as a vehicle serial number.

[rotorwrench]

The engine/trans/frame ID number didn't really have anything to do with ID of what the vehicle was. A good example is the difference between the Ford and Mercury cars of the immediate post war years up through 1948. They all had the same series of numbers. 239V8 was 99A. In late 1946 they decided to add the last digit of the year so they became 699A, 799A, and so on but it didn't tell you what type of car it was. It just wasn't meant to do that.

[Pickup46]

Ok, this all makes sense to me now, thanks to all of you for your help.