A VS B Sachs Identification w/o splitting case

[Brentb]

Anyone know how to identify the difference of an A engine from B engine with just the cylinder off?

Is there anything that would distinguish them apart?

Looking at cases bolted together on eBay and my garage can tell what I have for sure.

Ps ID tags no help on 50 year old engines that have had many owners.

Thanks bb

Brent Banning

[Dale Fisher]

First thing I look at how the stator wires come through the right case.  A engines typically have a round hole on top, B engines can have a hole or slot on the side.  There is also a difference on the spacing of the crank adjacent to the connecting rod.  If I remember correctly the A has a much larger "slot" or space visible.

http://www.pentonusa.org/publications/techtips/No.%2023%20Summer%202004%20-%20Sachs%20A%20&%20B%20Motor%20Differences.pdf

Dale Fisher
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[Paul Danik]

Brent,

   In the August of 1972 Keep'em Winning Penton Dealer newsletter Ted Penton addresses the fact that the "B" engines have a 10mm front engine mounting bolt/hole and the "A" having an 8mm front mounting bolt/hole . If you study the difference in the size of those front mounting holes as well as the mounting studs,  it won't take long till just a glance will tell you the story.

   The reason behind Ted addressing this fact was that folks who wanted to retro-fit the later "B" engine would need to enlarge the front mounting holes in the CMF style frame and Ted was adamant in the fact that one should use a rattail file to enlarge the holes, not a drill !

   This method of IDing the "A" vs the "B" works with cylinder on or off, unless some serious mods were done over the last 40 or so years

   The link below will take you to the Penton Dealer newsletter that I referred to. Once it opens scroll down to the last page for Ted's column.

  Ted Penton was John's brother and he was a mechanical genius if there ever was one. Stories of Ted's exploits and accomplishments could fill an encyclopedia. Dane Leimbach was Ted's nephew and as the saying goes. "they both seemed to be sawn off the same log".....  Dane
often worked side by side with his "Uncle Ted" and Dane loved to tell of those times together.

http://www.pentonusa.org/publications/keepemwinning/No.%2017%20August%201,%201972.pdf


  Hope this helps.
Paul

[wrongway57]

I have measured the crank wheel diameter with the cylinder off to find this out. Diameter is approx. 90mm for the B and approx. 107mm for the A. These measurements are from memory and its been a while since I had one apart. But they are close enough to make it easy to distinguish between the two. I just stuck a small tape measurer in the crank case and didn't split the cases.   Ron

Ronald Gray

[Brentb]

Thanks so much everyone, very helpful. Appreciate the attachments. I identified the engine it is 5B

Brent Banning