the engine replacement blues

M

mnofpeace

New Member
OK...get this.

before i get my bike from the 'dealer'...
i call and ask a few simple questions of the mechanic who worked on it.

so what cylinder has the problem/knock in it? "i dont know...it has a knock" "one of the middle ones"
so how do you know how bad it is? "i dont know, it has a knock, i would have to open it up"

ok then,
how many miles are on this new engine you say you have? i dont know, wont know until i go get it
what is its history? race engine, stock, how ridden? dont know
...but we will give you a 30 day warrentee on it when we put it in."


yeah, right, you are a mechanic and you cant tell me anything except "your engine is bad, you need to pay us and we will install a new engine we know nothing about"

needless to say, I am picking the bike up tomorrow and taking it to Terrance.
DONT TAKE YOUR BIKE TO CLINTON CYCLE FOR MECHANICAL WORK!!!!!
Patrick
Ft. Washington, Md.
 
A

aronhalt

New Member
I'm coming late to this party but...

In my previous Job as a Mechanic we used to pinpoint a problem like this by cutting open the oil filter to look for metallic debris. If aluminum(silver and not magnetic) a piston was failed, if bronze it was the main or rod bearings. If steel it was a camshaft (in this case it could be in the tranny as well). Finally, if nothing, it was probably carbon on the pistons, labor knock, or a loose torque converter. Also, a wrist pin or rod would sound different from a main under load..but I don't remember how.

Let us know what you find out. Good luck.
 
Handicapped Racer

Handicapped Racer

Member
aronhalt;42745 wrote: I'm coming late to this party but...

In my previous Job as a Mechanic we used to pinpoint a problem like this by cutting open the oil filter to look for metallic debris. If aluminum(silver and not magnetic) a piston was failed, if bronze it was the main or rod bearings. If steel it was a camshaft (in this case it could be in the tranny as well). Finally, if nothing, it was probably carbon on the pistons, labor knock, or a loose torque converter. Also, a wrist pin or rod would sound different from a main under load..but I don't remember how.

Let us know what you find out. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Cam chain tensioner was bad, that was all. Found a few other things wrong but, I'll leave that up to him to post.
 
J

JohnS

Member
Handicapped Racer;42927 wrote: Cam chain tensioner was bad, that was all. Found a few other things wrong but, I'll leave that up to him to post.
Click to expand...

:wow: you the man, nice to hear about someone not getting ripped off for once..
 
A

aronhalt

New Member
Wow, speachless. What luck. Thats like going in for heart surgery and having the doctor tell you on the operating table that you're ok and have only been having gas pains.
 
M

mnofpeace

New Member
Aronhalt...

I dont think it was luck at all...i think it was a dealer-mechanic trying to score some extra $$ for him and his employer, at the expense of what he thought was an idiot customer. Understand that this is the chosen dealer of many of the 'poser' level riders in the DC Metro Area. Bike washes with strippers, raffles, getting folks ready for Myrtle Beach are part of thier yearly schedule(not that there is anything wrong with being a poser-that is just not THIS board membership's thing). And your tip about metal in the oil filter; i put a screen mesh overtop of my draining oil every other oil-change to make sure i dont have any shavings coming thru...to try and catch an engine issue such as this could have been.

To summarize the entire event, before i met Terrance, i had no option but to believe what the dealer-mechanic was telling me. Rod Knock Rod Knock Rod Knock was like a second language to them. NO proof other than them telling me the sound was this wonderful problem that only an engine swap was the fix for. I didnt think to get a second opinion until i actually spoke with the mechanic myself (dealer has a rule posted on thier wall that nobody can actually do that. i caught him out at the service counter one day). When he uttered the stupidest thing "...how many miles does your engine have on it? 26k, well you are ready for a swap anyway." Uhm, excuse me, i guess he thought i was an idiot or a poser or something...but anybody who owns a Yammy knows, you dont even have to go in for a valve adj. until 26k, so WTF was he trying to pull. That is when i posted and was pointed to A&J. When i spoke to Terrance, he never once solicited me. He never said "well, bring it over..." or "I can do the work for this amount of $$." He was honest about what i should and shouldnt be asking the mechanic, and what they must tell me about my bike before i let them begin the work. When they couldnt do any of those things, i pulled my bike--to thier surprise i might add.

Needless to say, it is taking every ounce of restraint in me not to go back by there, pull the mechanic and/or the service person out, and say 4 simple words to them:

'CAM CHAIN TENSIONER BITCH!!!'

For the 2600 the dealer mechanic was asking, i took it to terrance and got what amounts to a full service on the bike, front to back...and for that he has easily earned a customer for as long as i am a rider.

Patrick
 
barry38

barry38

Member
As a dealership service manager all I can say is the last thing I want to do is tear down a motor, every one of those types of jobs turns into a loser. I also will not install a used motor, because I can't guarentee it.

I would seriously have to question the competancy of this shop, it's really not all that difficult to tell the difference between cam chain noise and a rod knock.

Glad you got things worked out!
 
M

mnofpeace

New Member
thanks barry...that is much appreciated.

i can understand not wanting to have one mechanic going thru such an intensive process when you could have so many other things to be done for other customers, but in this case, they truely would have been ripping me off if i had allowed the work. the source of my anger is this, and the fact that when asked, they had no answers for any of my general questions.
 
A

aronhalt

New Member
To clarify.. When I say luck, I mean you were lucky to find someone on this board that saved you. Great heart warming story. Thanks for filling us in with what you learned so we can all learn together.
 
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