Started shopping for some parts for my 87 and I seedifferent parts lists for A and AC models, though I cannot tell what the difference is and cannot seem to find anything online.

Only thing I could think of was that maybe the AC is spec’ed for California emissions ?

 

You are correct. AC simply designates it as a California model.

 

Thanks @hamlin6 . May be a dumb question - but Is it safe to assume that California bikes were only sold in California and not, say, in Canada ? I did a VIN lookup on a free website but it didn’t specify A or AC. Is there a way to decode the model variant from the VIN ?

 

Seeing that we are neighbors I think it’s highly possible a Cali bike could migrate north, especially if you are on the western side of the country.
I don’t know for sure another VIN but you should be able to easily tell when you start breaking it down as the California model has extra parts especially around the intake hose area. Given the age of the bike though a previous owner may have deleted that somewhere along the bikes life.