OK this is about as "close" as I can come in trying to explain/show the date codes on a wiper motor and why they're dated like they are.
For Car with
Build Date Date Code
January 335-365
February 001-031
March 032-059
April 060-090
May 091-120
June 121-151
July 152-181
August 182-212
September 213-243
October 244-273
November 274-304
December 305-334
OK Now you're probably thinking what I used to think....001-031 are the first days in January, not February. Correct. HOWEVER, these motors were not built the day your car came down the assembly line. Can you IMAGINE the chaos that would've created? I've seen date codes go 30 days on the "norm" before the actual build date of the car, but have seen them also come in, original to the car, 180 days prior as well. What have I learned from that? That you can NEVER say never where Chrysler was concerned.
So, how do you read your date code? Simple. Looking at the last line of numbers stamped on your cylinder/barrel of your 3 speed, if you see 2929 that would mean the 292nd day of 69. If it were 2928, then it was a 68 car. If it was 2920, 70 car and so on.
I've had people ask me for the date code to the day of their car's scheduled production date. I'm going to be honest here and say I don't really think they stamped cylinders/barrels everyday. Why? Because over the years I've handled literally hundreds of wiper motors/cores and I see them on my shelves when I look in "blocks", i.e., I might have 8 3079 date code but I've never seen a 3069. When I have approximately 70 cylinders on the shelf preplated and in varying forms of break down and I see rows, meaning 3-5 of the same date codes, and nothing in between, it's looking like they stamped the same number for a full week. I think what I'll start doing is keeping track of the actual date codes that do come through my shop so I can build some type of reference point for myself.
Anywho...I saw someone was searching for date codes, thought perhaps they might have been looking for a proper date code for their particular car and thought I'd take a minute out of the shop to put this together.
If you have any questions, or have other information on this topic, please feel free to contact me and share...it's how we all learn ;o)
