That really sucks Hackd. I don't think I would be paying for a new set of used heads if the bike was not smoking before I brought it into that shop. I'm thinking they torqued the heads wrong or didn't use oil on the threads when they torqued down the head bolts, and if that is the case, then when the heads got hot then cool down then hot again that could of cracked the heads, are you getting what I'm saying. I think they need to suck up the cost of the heads and also I would have them put everything back on the way you brought bike in. Hard to find good shops now a days. I know the shop owner is trying not suck up the costs of the heads but his shop screwed up my 2 cents. Good Luck.

 

Yeah I tend to agree with them screwing up the heads. But it'll be hard to prove as the previous shop did such a crappy job on them that there could have been cracks that got amplified or exposed by the porting the new shop did. I'm stuck with the ol': 'he did..they did' argument. I did tell the current shop owner that I wanted the breather back to what it was, and he said he'd do that. I hope he can find the old parts. You know how stuff disappears.

They called last night to let me know the obvious: That the bike wouldn't be done by the time they closed. There was no way in hell he was going to get it done in a day. I knew this when he said he'd have it back to me that quick. Unless he dedicated himself to just my bike, and only my bike. Then he still would've have to strip it all down to the jugs, refurbish the used heads and port them, put everything back together and test ride it. No way was that gonna happen. And I realize that he's also trying to run a business. But he's gonna have to make a decision sooner or later as to what he wants to do: Be a wrench, or run a business. If you're gonna take all this work in, then you've got to be able to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. I don't think having my bike torn apart for almost seven weeks is a reasonable amount of time. If you want to be a wrench don't take so much work that you end up pissing off the customers. If you want to run a business, hire good people to do the work to your standards.

I'm certain that once I do get this bike back that I'll find missing or wrong bolts holding things together. I've yet to take this piece of crap to anyone recently that hasn't managed to screw up something that wasn't screwed up before. Hell, the dealer's service department in Ann Arbor managed to drop something on my tank and chip the paint! There's got to be some outstanding shops out there somewhere. Places that won't pull your chain, lie to you, make excuses, go the 'extra' little bit to make things right, do quality work, etc.

I just haven't found them yet.

 

August 5, 2006.....Harley is back in my garage. Just over seven weeks after I took it in. It made it to my driveway where it died. Battery. Stone cold dead. And just this morning, the shop had replaced my brand new (less than three weeks when I took the bike to him) $90 Genuine HD battery with an $80 Drag Specialties one. Owner said I must of gotten a bad one. They told me they couldn't find anything wrong with the charging system. I guess because it 'just' happened to die on them, it was because of the 'bad' battery I had purchased. Damn 15 miles, 40 minutes of riding, and battery takes a dump. With the sort of logic the shop owner has, he owes me another battery...Right?????? Having gone through this battery dying issue numerous times, I know what the symptoms are: First thing, naturally is that the lights start to dim, then the turn signals stop working, then the tach dies, then the motor starts to run like crap. If you're lucky and can get it someplace safe: It dies or you shut it off. Either way, it's not going to start again. You know, I explained all this to them. And also to the dealer that nailed me for $300 to replace a voltage regulator and diagnose my charging system. I must of been having an out of body experience at the time, or talking in tongues. But hey, most dealer serivce managers and shop owners think we're; all morons anyway, don't know our intake from exhaust, and haven't a clue what a torque wrench or micrometer is. Why else would we take them our bikes? Right? Geeez, some of us...actually a lot of us, do have a clue.

Oh, it gets better: Seems, after all, the heads weren't the problem. At least now I won't have a bastard set of black heads on my silver motor. Some how, some way, one of the piston rings broke. I think they might have expanded it just a bit too much to get it on the piston. But what the hell do I know? It's not like I've never rebuilt an internal compustion engine before. Their excuse: must have been bad when we installed it. Riiiiiiggggghhhhhtttttt....I'm beginning to see a pattern here. So they had to tear it all down again. I feel their pain....Really I do. At least now it's not smoking like an old locomotive. The owner also told me he had to swap out the top rocker box cover on the front jug this morning. Seems, according to him, it was still blowing air out past the gaskets. So now I've got bolts that aren't chrome holding down the front cover. I wish he would have called and told me all this beforehand. I would have gladly paid for a new set of Genuine HD Chrome (not the crap stuff that the other place installed...Oh that's right, they said that they were Genuine HD--Funny thing after R&Ring the covers twice myself, I never saw any HD part numbers on them. They must of gotten a 'bad part' also.). Now I admit that I'm not a 'certified HD technician', I'm just your above average wrench. But....If rebuilding the top end by this shop was to eliminate the crankcase pressure that was caused by all the blow-by from the crappy rebuild the previous shop sold me, and the head breathers are in perfect condition: Why would there be any excessive pressure in the rocker boxes? There wouldn't be....Right? Especially enough that you could feel? And to blow past a properly installed and tight rocker box gasket? Oh, I forgot, the shop owner told me: "I can't be held responsible for some other shops F%#K ups." No, I wouldn't blame You for that. But if I took it to Your shop to have You fix it, then You sure as hell are responsible for fixing it the right way. Not making a bunch of crap excuses for Your F*&K ups.

Oh, its not over yet: Before I paid the $1825 bill (or I let my daughter take off with the car), I was checking the bike over for any sort of 'unexpected' damage (or obvious F*&K ups) and also to see if he had hooked the original breather back up. Then I spot this....Oh yeah...There w

 

Okay, Monday rolls around and I take the scoot out for a short putt around the neighborhood. Doing the break-in thing. I was gonna go for a fifty mile jaunt, but looked down and saw the base gasket leaking. What a surprise, I really wish I'd made that bet with the dude. So I get back home and it's around 1PM and the phone rings. It's the owner of the shop that worked on the bike. I'm thinking what this MF trying to coverup now. He already has my $1825 and I finally got my bike back, even though I had to still 'fix' the battery problem.
So he starts out: "How's the bike?"
I reply, "It made it to my driveway then died."
"Your kidding."
"I wouldn't kid about that. It's happened too many times before."
"Battery dead?"
"Yeah. The new battery....But I think I fixed it. Remember I told you I was having problems with the regulator/stator plug? I whittled it down with an E-xato knife held the stator end with needle nose pliers so the sockets wouldn't move and got a solid connection finally."
"Oh...Well your battery is almost charged (jeez I hope so, it's only been on the charger since Saturday morning) so I can do a load check on it, if it checks out, then bring the bike over and we'll swap back the batteries and take it off your bill." I'm thinking, seven weeks to do a top end job, it's gonna take him at least a week to do a simple battery swap.
I counter: "Oh, and the base gasket is leaking. You know the one that both you and your mechanic said: 'It's not leaking.'? The one's I asked you to install the aftermarket (Hayden 'The' leak fix) part so they wouldn't leak again. The part that you didn't install?
So he responds, "No problem, we'll fix it." Yeah another seven weeks...Right?
So then he asks , "Are the rocker boxes leaking?"
"No, but I haven't been able to cruise along at 70 mph, where they leaked before. I'll have to wait until I get the motor broke in before I know one way or the other."
"You know those aftermarket chrome covers are junk. (Another 'bad part' excuse?) You might need to get an entire set of HD ones."
Yeah...Right, another $600 on top of the amount I've already shelled out. Don't think so. "Ya know, if you would have called me about having to replace one of the uppers, I would have gladly paid for an new set of HD ones. My only concern was getting this thing fixed. And fixed right.

Then he drops the BIG ONE:

"I have to tell you something, I don't lie to my customers. When I told you that the compression ring was cracked, what it really turned out to be was that the guy I had working on your bike put it in upside down. There was a broken one in the package we got." (yeah the one the knucklehead broke before he substituted another one....probably a used one that wasn't gapped correctly) "I didn't find this out until afterwards when the other mechanic that I told to help out on your bike told me. I fired the guy this morning. This wasn't the first thing he'd screwed up." (Great...I didn't bring it to his shop to have some rookie screw it up. That's what happened at the last place.) "I told him that he wasn't gonna learn how to work on bikes at my customers expense. And put me in a position where I had to do what I did." (Oh, he must have meant lying to his customers...Right?) "He lied to me about his qualifications. Said he knew a lot more than he really did. So I fired him. I just want to let you know what really happened."

Can you F%#KIN' believe this!!!!!!

"Well, I appreciate the fact that you called. But where does that leave me?"
"Bring your bike back in and we'll get the base gaskets fixed."
"Ya know, I don't want to have my bike tied up for that length of time again."
"No, we'll get you in and out right away."
"Listen, I know what's involved with swapping out the base gaskets. It's a minimum six hour job. And that's if nothing goes wrong. Or n

 

Wow what a story,At least the guy came true with you.I would start working on my own bike from now on or find an independent you can trust.These dealers cant seem to hold onto mechanics very long,good ones or otherwise.

 

This was an independent. And supposedly, from all the acolades on his web site, a very good one. My question still remains: Would you take your bike back to him and get it fixed?

 

Okay, Hopefully this will be the next to last post on this thread. Took the scooter into the shop that worked on it to get the rocker boxes replaced with the Genuine HD stuff. They are also going to install Haydens 'The Oil Fix' for the leaking cylinder base gaskets. I'm having them dyno the bike, and check out the ignition module (it might have gotten screwed during the voltage regulator fiasco) because I still have an on again off again vibration issue. They are also gonna fix the tranny leak at the clutch cable end (bad o-ring, I suspect).

Bike is running good with 1500 miles (and 3 oil changes) on the top end rebuild....