Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Triumph bulletin board Triumph's part numbering

In the last issue of Vintage Bike I wrote a missive about the changes that came about when the BSA group started to use computers.

Well this week I ran into a new one. The Triumph number for the Rigid axle was TS42. Now anyone working with Triumph part numbers is familar with the numeric interchange numbers to translate the alpha prefix part numbers. S becomes 21, F becomes 82, E becomes 70 and so on.

Well 57 becomes T. So in someones creativity we have a new Triumph part number for a rigid axle nut. It started as TS42. It has now morphed into 57-0542. It makes sense to someone.

I am with you up to the S. In the old fonts the "S" just simply looks like a "5" and where you only have three digits after the dash you add the zero.

Now if you search some of the Triumph parts lists on line you will find the 57-0542 Rigid Axle nut.

We have actually added 57-0542 to our computer with a use TS42.

Now if Harris makes this nut will he make up a 99- series number?

A good Triumph parts man is worth his weight in Castrol R.

I think that you have to put this in the context of the industry at the time it was first given that part #.
I ran a pretty big engineering department at a company about 5 miles from Meriden during the 60s and 70s.
The experienced designers drew up the parts.
The parts lists were regarded as the lowest job of the low and were left to apprentices to compile.
I would bet $50 that what happened is that what should have been a "5" looked like an "S" and this produced TS42.
The apprentice was probably hung over from the previous nights drinking or day dreaming of what he was intending to do to his girl friend that coming evening.
My advice--- don't trust the parts drawings or the parts lists too much--remember the circumstances under which they were compiled.

Hand-printed "5" and "S" are easily confused. I've made the mistake in my own handwriting.

As to parts lists: I have made my own corrections to them a number of times over the years.

Why specifically TS?

What about NW, GE, WE, PO, PT, NT, (etc.etc.) prefix part numbers?




Edit:
https://www.jrcengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/TRI-PU-1950.pdf
p.35

Also, pre-war parts had a two letter prefix before the familiar F, T, E, W etc numbers came into use in the late 30s. Those still in use by about 1970 had new BSA type part numbers allocated eg collet WE259A became 71-3748. Footrest rubbers NF704 became 82-9279. I haven't checked a pre-war parts book but I think TS42 would be the original part number. The later number has been wrongly transcribed at some point.