A solution to the MSR date stamp puzzle?

Re my: "Open question:
Apr 89 (mod?) -to- Dec 89 (XGKII) uses what date format(s)???
["XGKII (XGK2) began early/mid '89", source credit Andy Sorensen RIP]"

We thank scrambler for answer "logically there cannot be an earlier 3-number date. Per MSR themselves, these dates are MMY translated MM, 199Y." [[["my" logic has lead me astray at times but i digress]]]
makes sense ^^^ this presumes that,
this vvv would be the format Dec 89
12
89
Unless/until a wrinkle in this logic emerges... I will adopt this. THANK YOU
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For MSR stoves that are dated, Jay Tews for example was sold as an XGKII, it's an XGKII.

further and this imo,
IF Jay's (or any other) is modified to match earlier or later models.. myself, i consider it an XGKII that has been modified.
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your undated XGK family stove.
*details can be checked and date range can be narrowed (vs 81-94).

There have been and there will be plenty of stove (maker/model) mysteries that, due to limited details to reference (to-date), it's not original, it's modified and /or a bitsa etc , we can not determine if it is X, Y or any model. We leave it at that.
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*re your undated XGK family stove (vs 81-94). IF it has aluminum base? and no date code it's a BITSA, done (imo).
[if it has the later bakelite base, whatever it was originally, MSR released (/shipped) it pre Apr 81. if the burner/fuel arm does not match the burner housing, it's a BITSA ]
4275 views to date tag @oddball

 

Thanks @OMC . Yes, mine is a non-existent beast. As you suggest, could be a post-1981 shell around a pre-1981 loop/burner. It does have the aluminum base.

But...

It has the XK / XG nozzles. The right style of bell for the 80s.

I suspect it was one that sneaked out the back door in the early '80s. Everything bar the numbers fits with that era.

 

I must have an exception to this dating code. My MSR Whisperlite Internationale 600 that I purchased new in December 1996 has the code MSR071. The Whisperlite Internationale 600 was introduced in 1993. Maybe they found an old aluminum block in a parts bin somewhere.

The aluminum block on my Whisperlite Universal does not have a date code on it.

 

Photos (generator loop and date stamp) would be helpful. The size of the stamping could be a clue.

I'd think a rebuilt stove might be an option, except that you bought it new.

It's certainly a curve ball. By 1996 the stamping should have been a 4 digit date.

Stamps seem to have been the "sign off" element so there should be no old ones lying about. You and I have unstamped blocks which is a fair bit more common than "wrong" stamps.

 

I'll take pictures when I get home and see if I can figure out how to upload them. The generator loop is the correct size for the internationale 600. I bought it new from REI. The code on the aluminum block does have what might be called smaller letters, but I only have a sample size of one to compare.

Here is one picture of it I have in my phone, next to the universal.

The instructions are version 1.1. It came with a gray and red pump.

 

@Chumango

That IS interesting!

Was it bought as a straight off-the-rack stove?

I would wonder about the possibility of an anniversary special (the model change at the 20th anniversary of the Model 9). The "71" which seems different to the "MSR" and the "0" would then NOT be a date stamp.

The 3 figure date stamps look like this:

The above very deeply snipped from the original post.

The style of the 3-number stamp on yours is the stamping style of the 4-number stamps (ie not until well after 1991). It does not fit, on any measure, the proposed system, nor any proposed system I am aware of.

 

It was ordered over the phone since at the time there was no REI store anywhere near me. I still have the receipt/packing list.

 

So direct from MSR themselves?

I wonder if it was a mistake in the stamping- someone stamped "1" when they should have stamped "9" - and so the stamp was never completed (the stamp style should have "MSR0795" or "MSR0796"). "It's good enough, we'll sell it direct from us".

Maybe it was stamped on a "teen" date in July - would be easy to pick up the 1 since the date format was unusual (mmyy vs mmddyy)

It seems to me to be an error, a little like the unstamped versions which presumably made it out the door without the full quality check (and confirming stamp).

 

Ordered direct from REI, who at the time owned MSR.

 

Here is the MSR Dragonfly I bought new in the first half of 1999, probably March. The date code looks correct.

 

To close the loop on the mystery date of my WLI 600, the picture below shows the date code of the pump that came with it, May 96, which fits with when I bought it, December 1996. The MSR071 remains a mystery.

Two other WLI 600 have recently been in my hands, and the date codes for them make sense. One is MSR0498 on the Aluminum block and Z/97 (Dec 97) on the pump. The other is MSR0201 on the Al block and 6/00 on the pump. The Dragonfly above, with MSR0199 on the Al block, is Z/98 (Dec 98) on the pump. All the pumps have date codes that precede the dates on the Al blocks, by as many as 8 months.

 

Thanks @Chumango

With your pump-vs-stove dating, I think we expect July 1996 as the date of your stove? And that the "1" is a fearsome red herring.

I'm sticking with picking up the wrong stamp, either to start "1996" or because the date was "07-1x-96". It confirms that this was a hand production step not a machine stamp.

Thank-you for the curly question!