Motorcycle Repair: vin number, vin plate, towing company

Question
Hey Chris,
 I had a friend of mine that is a bike tech.look
at my bike the same day I e-mailed you the question about the stater and it turns out thats
what it was.It cost me 80 bucks for a new one.I
have another question for you that you will hope-
fully be able to answer.I have to apply for the title because the bike was impounded by the wre-
cker service I bought it from.The vin plate on the bike only shows 12 characters but the dmv says that it is supposed to have 17.The plate says vin on it and i'm thinking that maybe beca-
use it's a 79' that it wont have 17.I tried finding it on carfax also but with no succes.any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Thanks.

Answer
Hi Daryl.
 It is very possible that the DMV could be wrong about it for that make/year bike.  What you may want to do is try to get hold of the towing company and see if they have the old title.  It would have the VIN # on it and the DMV should have no problem.  Also, if the # has been previously tampered with, it may have the frame # as well to verify what you have.

You may also want to talk to the local police to find out if it's possible that the Vin # is correct.  Explain to them the situation and perhaps they may know how to help you find the missing #'s from the VIN (if they are missing at all).

Outside of that, I really don't know.

Sorry that I couldn't help further on that.
Good luck.
FALCON