New Departure Model D Dating

[dougfisk]

My experience with ND model D's confirms much, not all, of what this poster said in 2007....

Can anyone else out there pinpoint the year (in the 30's) that the brake arm changed from "New Departure Model D" to "New Departure Brake"?

Model D hubs can be dated within a few years by the brake arm, assuming it's original to the hub. It was like the C arm at first with a finished edge in chrome, reading New Departure Model D, then a few years later it was the same arm reading New Departure Brake, Prewar '40s came the unfinished flat edge arm with the previous script in chrome, Wartime it was this arm/script, painted black, then postwar the same flat edge arm read NEW DEPARTURE, all block letters, non chromed. The D shell is definitely different for '30s and '40s+, as seen in the flange length. A postwar driver wont fit a '30s shell, but the older will fit the newer. The sprocket locking nut also changed, but the chances of it being original is a lot less.

 

[rustjunkie]

Seems to me the little New Departure Model D was 1930s, the larger with New Departure Brake was 1940-WWII, then the block NEW DEPARTURE came along after WWII, in chrome and cadmium.
....?....