Reasons to keep VJMs away from dealers

Bikegeezer

A fellow brought me his pride and joy the other day - a cherry '71 CB500 with 7500 miles. Just came back from the local Honda dealer with a $700 bill for valve adjust and carb "rebuild." I found negative clearance on one intake valve that caused a compression loss in that hole. Now they're trying to talk him into a top end bore job! Plus, the carbs had new float needles and seats jammed in. Float levels way off. Then they put 'em back on filthy and didn't synch 'em. I found all kinds of wrong and damaged parts in the carbs. No gaskets were replaced, so the float bowls were leaking. Air passages clogged with water mineral residue, etc. They replaced the ignition wires with 8mm suppressor core auto wires - 3' long and looped around all over the top of the engine. Installed wrong spark plugs...Good lord! He could have paid himself the $700 and probably not screwed it up half as bad.

Stu

dorT500

Stu wrote....He could have paid himself the $700 and probably not screwed it up half as bad.

Stu[/quote] dorT500 wrote .....and he probably would have at least 50% more confidence than he had going in. Laughing

mqqn · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:55 am Post subject:

Hi Bikegeezer -

Wow - that is really poor.

Maybe a call to the BBB - as it sounds that either through deliberate actions or possibly ignorance, the place was trying to run up a large bill.

This is why I am the only person who puts wrench or rag to my machines.

Your friend is lucky to have you there - and he should have come to you first.

best regards -

mqqn

niadvance · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:35 am Post subject: ripoff

yeah that shop should be reported not just for ripping him off but for actually damaging his bike.

Blue · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:21 pm Post subject: YIKES !!

Man, sorry that happened to you, but it takes a while to find people competant enough to do the work. It sounds like the local Harley shop here, the "kids" in the shop didn't know what a panhead was last time I was there, that's okay, they probably never heard of an 8 track player either. The time before that the "kid" that swept the floor was working in the shop changing tires, some of you might remember me telling the story of the arrow facing the wrong way on a friends bike, both front and rear tires, so the moral of the story, sort it out yourself, enlist friends and this site, worse case scenario is bone up with questions before you take it in........Blue

650hardtail · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:25 pm Post subject:

+1 on the shops doing work..a local independent told me that i shouldnt attempt to do the cams on my sporty..
i then told him i had the tranny out for some repairs .. that im not an idiot...all i wanted was to have new bushings
installed in the cam cover..needless to say somebody else got the bushing job..and he lost any of my future $$$$

Ltdave · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:23 pm Post subject:

the guy whos worked on my bikes (i dont have the room, the time, the tools or enough confidence) started his own shop for this exact same reason...

he bought a bike from a guy who paid a shop about $400 for some alleged repairs. they were not effective and he fixed the bike in about 20 minutes...

he still bought the bike but then hung out his shingle...

if youre in S.E. Michigan, check out Carl at ThunderValleyPower dot com...

Bikegeezer · Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:11 am Post subject:

I told him to try and work out something with the service manager, and contact Honda customer relations if they won't man up. He says he doesn't like to get angry. I've got news for him - they're not going to do anything other than maybe offer a re-do. And I think we all know how that would turn out. So what can I charge him for fixing this bike? Well, it's got to be worth at least as much as he was willing to pay for NOT fixing it. Doncha think?

Funny thing is, this guy contacted me several months ago after I placed an ad for vintage bike repairs in Craig's list. He wanted to know my "resume," then said I was the type of guy he'd been looking for. So when the bike failed our state's emissions test, he takes it to a Honda dealer? He's a newbie, but he got his cherry busted on this one. Unless they're old guys (like me) about ready to retire, those mechanics are only trained to work on stuff made in the past 10 years. 40 year old carbs and points ignitions? They should stick to the stuff they know, and leave the vintage bikes alone. Even so, the stuff they did is an embarrassment to good mechanics everywhere. It's crap like this that's given the motorcycle repair industry its well deserved bad reputation.

Stu

niadvance · Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 6:20 pm Post subject: live and learn

some people only learn from the school of hard knocks, and some not even then.

Blue · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:27 pm Post subject: Holy Cow

All I can say is AMEN to that, had a 97 Dyna come by the other day and the guy said the speedo was acting funny, he had been to the Harley shop and the "service manager" had suggested he replace the speedo, at about $400. as it had to come from Harley with the current mileage put on by them, then I asked what was wrong and he said it showed odd readings, like 35mph when he was keeping up with traffic and erratic up and down speeds. I suggested he bring it back to the shop where I removed the Hall sensor from the tranny and wiped it off with a rag, (we're talking one screw here) reinstalled, no more trouble, 10 minutes, 1 wrench, no charge. I think he was going to have a talk with the dealer, not real sure, but he was mumblin when he left............Blue

Vesparider · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:54 pm Post subject:

I definately need to charge more for working on locals older machines.... 12 packs of Dr Pepper is usually the going rate for my time. Every once in a while I get a tip of a 24 pack instead..... Very Happy

Bikegeezer · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:33 pm Post subject:

Vesparider · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:27 pm Post subject:

fasterspider · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject:

1 · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 1:40 pm Post subject:

when i bought my '85 maxim 700 last year the local yamaha dealer told me it was too old. they will only work on a bike 10 yrs or newer. it only had 23,000 miles on her!
that was the best thing to happen in a long time. now i'v learned how to turn my own wrenches and its so damn satisfying Very Happy

and no worrying about scratchs,dings,poor work ethics.
my buddy got talked into a $1,000 drive shaft rebuild because of a worn bearing. even though the bike is a 2005 and only had 26,000 miles (same dealer).
AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN CLEAN THE GREASE AND DIRT OFF THE RIM WHEN THAY GAVE IT BACK Evil or Very Mad