This evening, I was able to rummage through my box of discarded brake levers, and discovered that there are at least 4 generations of Weinmann levers. That is, there are the 2 versions of the modern Carrera levers that Mark Agree and Bob Hanson have described and photographed. There is also the original version that we all know and "love". Come to think of it, Bob's comments make me think that there could be many more variations than I expected.
Anyway, the version that I found in my box, has a construction that is a marriage of the older and newer designs. Or perhaps it's merely a less expensive version of the Carrera levers? On mine, the actual lever and internals are the same as the Carrera pieces, although the body is stamped/welded aluminum, like the early levers. But the body's shape is not identical to the early levers. Rather, it appears closer to (although not quite identical to) the shape of the cast Carrera lever bodies. The hoods are identical to those found on the Carrera levers, though.
By the way, these latter style hoods are not a particularly good fit on the earliest style lever body, and vice versa. As an illustration, here's an eBay auction for what appears to be the earliest style of lever body with the latter style hoods. Notice that the hoods do not fully cover the upper portion of the lever body sides:
http://ebay.com/
This might be more information than necessary for some of you, but I hope it's useful for others.
Cheers,
Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)
> From: FujiFish1@aol.com <FujiFish1@aol.com>
\r?\n> Subject: Re: [CR]Mystery 1970's ? brake lever - Now: Weinmann
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Cc: Stronglight49@aol.com
\r?\n> Date: Monday, September 15, 2008, 4:58 PM
\r?\n> Thanks for that link, Bob! So is the Weinmann lever
\r?\n> depicted at your link,
\r?\n> what you are referring to as the earlier style, or the more
\r?\n> contemporary
\r?\n> shape of the 80s? This drawing appears to be exactly like
\r?\n> my lever, except that
\r?\n> mine does have the cable slot in front. Thanks...
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Ciao,
\r?\n> Mark Agree
\r?\n> Southfield MI USA
\r?\n> ~ ~ ~
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:03:48 EDT
\r?\n> From: Stronglight49@aol.com
\r?\n> To: fred_rednor@yahoo.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Subject: Re: [CR]Mystery 1970's ? brake lever
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Fred,
\r?\n> You may be thinking of some earlier Weinmann levers.
\r?\n> Some even had a vertical WEINMANN
\r?\n> lettering stamped into the lever arms which mimicked
\r?\n> Campagnolo S/R markings. By the
\r?\n> 1980s when they began to update their top level calipers
\r?\n> and levers, they also changed those
\r?\n> lever bodies to a more contemporary shape.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Here is one example of a Carrera lever blown up from one
\r?\n> catalogue page...
\r?\n> they changed very slightly during a few years in actual
\r?\n> production, and some even included
\r?\n> the cable slot at the front of the body which was an even
\r?\n> more common feature on later
\r?\n> Dia-Compe Grand Compe models.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> http://farm4.static.flickr.com/
\r?\n>
\r?\n> BOB HANSON, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, USA