The Warranty Process

"Its a brand new tiller and we never got it running". I enjoy a challenge but this one was easy. If you're gonna lie about it never running at least clean the mud off the tines. Now explain to me how an engine that never ran has a scored cylinder. Nobody wants to be accountable for their actions these days. Its always somebody elses fault and they will make up lies to ensure that. The saddest part is that the customer didn't have to lie. There was a legit issue with the equipment that the customer had no control over. A warranty claim was filed.

 This is typical of the kind of thing I've been seeing a lot more of lately. A person goes to the big box store, buys a cheap piece of shit and has problems. One of the problems is that they are selling "disposable" outdoor power equipment. The biggest problem is that the big box store doesn't do what a shop like ours does. At the big box stores you will get an offer to purchase an extended warranty but thats where it ends. A shop like the one I work at starts by matching the equipment purchase to the consumer needs. We set up the machines, test run them and train the customer how to operate and maintain them. Nobody leaves before all their questions are answered. I do see a problem every so often when a guy is too macho to listen to what I'm telling him, then later comes back bad mouthing the product. A good example is warm starting procedure for a chainsaw. We explained it when they bought the saw, theres a big sticker right there on the saw, but "nobody told me that". With a smile I politely point out the sticker right there on the saw is a reminder and the fact that its in the owners manual. OK I don't smile very often. In fact on the inside I'm quoting Red Forman...Dumbass! You were too smart to listen, now you're being schooled! The point is, the customer receives one-on-one help for their issues and usually leaves happy. If you ask the big box store for help on warranty issues they send you to us.

 When they are sent to us, I find people lie all the time about equipment that needs repair. Usually its because they weren't educated on the equipment and did something wrong. I don't mind setting them straight, denying warranty and writing up a bill for diagnostics even when the machine wasn't fixed. I'm not a dick about it, I just don't feel sorry for a person that brings on bad juju from their dishonesty. You'll get something for nothing if its covered under warranty. All others pay. You have to remember, the equipment manufacturers are our biggest repair customers due to warranty claims. We are on the customers side and make every claim we know will be accepted. Sometimes we can even get the manufacturers to agree to a goodwill gesture of some sort. The sad part about all of this is that it could have been avoided if they bought from a shop like ours that educates the customer. 

 Sometimes we have to educate a customer when we are explaining why they don't have a valid warranty claim. It makes me sad when I see a customer bring in all their paperwork and proof of purchase for a piece of equipment that won't run only to be denied a claim. They think it will be a free repair and then they get a bill. I have to be the dickhead that explains why. I do my best to let them down easy and be thorough in my explanation. I don't use 8x10 color glossy prints but I will show them pics from my phone. It must be a lot like seeing that the biggest package under the tree has your name on it, only to have some grumpy elf drop in and explain there was a clerical error at the main office and this gift ain't for you. 

 This happened yesterday. We've been busy so repairs are at least a week out so right away customers are antsy. I get a work order that has all the receipts and such attached and this tells me the customer isn't expecting a bill. Now the engine manufacturers have no control over what you put in the fuel tank and bad fuel isn't a manufacturer defect. A lot of people don't get that. A carb kit and cleaning labor fixed a problem with a rusty scum buildup issue in a chainsaw carb. The customer wasn't furious but he was whatever the next level of pissed off is right below that. He said he uses only premium fuel, no ethanol, and the brand name oil we sell. I told him I believed him and started asking a few questions. He told me where he buys his fuel and that he uses a one gallon can. If you deal with this stuff every day then you know where I'm going with my line of questions. This particular station uses one hose pumps. That is, whatever grade is selected comes out the same hose. I had to explain to him that he was getting at least some of whatever grade the guy before him pumped. There was a chance a good portion of his one gallon can was ethanol. Now if his can wasn't sealed tight with the humidity we've been having, theres also a good chance it was pulling moisture right out of thin air. BTW, to get around this problem, pump the first gallon or two into your vehicle before you fill your can with the good stuff.

 He wasn't happy about the situation. Heres a guy that thought he was doing everything right only to find out he was overlooking a few points. He was a reasonable man and didn't blame me for anything. In fact he thanked me for taking the time to explain everything. At the end of it all he said. " I wish I would have bought my saw from here".

 This is getting long but I have one more. A customer brings in a tiller, much like the first one I talked about. Someone must have been having a sale on crappy tillers. They never got it started and I believe them. First, if you follow the starting procedures on the sticker you will flood it every time and never get it started. Second, when I finally did get it started it wouldn't idle. It was set too low. I explained all this to the claims department of the distributor. I was talking with them because I wanted to make at least a minimal warranty claim for my time to get their piece of shit tiller running for their customer. We didn't sell the machine so we didn't make a dime on the deal but the customer was sent to us for service. He wanted to deny any claim because I told him I had to turn the idle up to keep it running. We went back and forth and both fell just short of any name calling. He did finally state he doesn't normally handle warranty claims but "Idle adjustment is clearly explained in the owners manual and the customer shouldn't have had to bring it in to you". "Oh really?", I said. "Please explain to me how the customer was supposed to know the idle was set too low on an engine they were never able to get started?" There was a long pause and then he gave me a claim number. Dumbass.

Later.

Playing Detective

 So this post was just gonna be some random pics from my phone of life at work. The more I scanned for shop pics, the more I found pics showing the results of detective work I've done to find running issues with chainsaws. Lets see what we've got.

 Here is a common one. Someone will come in with a saw that floods itself out. I'll rebuild the carb and when they get the bill they bitch because they claim they just rebuilt it. I state that I know it was just rebuilt because whoever did it screwed up and then I show them why. Sometimes its gaskets installed wrong but many times its because they didn't clean the protective coating from the rubber tip of the new needle valve. In the above pic, if the needle were clean it would be completely orange. "Well it was actually my brother-in law that did the work, I'll have words with him". Ok buddy, whatever.

 Two pics above, the intake manifold on the right and the cylinder on the left. I really wish the owner would have told me he put on an aftermarket cylinder before I had to figure it out on my own. He would have saved some money in labor costs. This case is something I see a lot. People pay for parts and spend time trying to fix it then bring it to a shop and pay to have someone else fix it the right way. This guy didn't save any money buying a chinese cylinder and ended up buying a new factory cylinder anyway. In the pic above you can see the port is too big and the lip of the seal hangs in the opening of the port. This creates and air leak and a lean condition that would eventually ruin the piston and cylinder if not caught early. Pro tip: if you have an unusual high idle condition and a saw that will rev really high but has no balls in the cut then shut it down and have it looked at. It most likely is running lean.

 Above is another example of an air leak/lean runner. This plastic intake manifold isn't something that a person would normally remove and look at. Because the bolts were tight and the plastic isn't warped along with this being a newer unit, there is a fair chance this came from the factory this way. While a company can have a good reputation, it is still made up of individuals that can make mistakes.

 In the above pic you can see a rubber intake boot on a concrete saw is not seated properly. It was replaced by a shop mechanic that usually works on large equipment. He was so close to getting it right. I don't think the owner liked paying his guys wages to fail and then pay us to figure it out because we get a lot of small engine work from them now.
 Most of the time these types of air leak problems are found by doing pressure and vacuum test of the crankcase and then searching for the leak. Sometimes even when you know where the leak is, it still takes some figuring out why. Factories want to know why for warranty claims and people want to know why so they can blame someone else.
 I enjoy playing detective and its a nice break in the action between the broken starter recoils, oil leakers and dirty air filter tune ups.

Later.

New Workbench Surface

 Thanks for all the feed back on my last post which was a vlog attempt. I'm gonna be doing more video but I have a lot of things to work out. I suppose at some point the best case scenario might be every other post being a video. Unfortunately for you, there will be some crap video and experimenting long before there is anything good. Maybe one of you out there can suggest a free easy to use but full function video editor. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

 At work one of my primary jobs is chainsaw repair and the bench surface I've been working on is just a piece of OSB board similar to particle board. As a work surface this totally sucks. It isn't durable, soaks up oils and gives me slivers under my nails every time I go to pick up a small part. I've been wanting to upgrade and finally took the time when the boss offered up some sheet plastic that was left over from a dump truck bed liner. My vision isn't getting any better and the bright white surface works great for spotting small parts and really helps me see what I'm doing. The following job was one of the first repairs done on the new work top. So far I like it.
 A while back I was prepping a new saw for a customer. I poured bar oil in the tank and the work bench started filling up with oil. Further inspection revealed a crack in the oil tank. Not sure if it happened at the factory or at our shop but it needed to be fixed. Unfortunately the oil tank is part of the engine shroud which is the piece everything else is bolted to.

 The broke ass saw on the left, the replacement engine shroud on the right. Pretty obvious that everything has to come apart.

  A view of the other side with the clutch removed.

 Muffler and oil pump removed. Oil feed hose and bar stud swapped directly onto new shroud.

 Here is a close look at the damage. Someone dropped this saw before it had a bar on it.

 Heres what works for me to remove screw-in bar studs. I screw a larger Stihl style bar nut on first then jam a smaller Husky style nut against it. Now I can easily use a wrench or socket to run the stud out (and back in).

 Starter cover and handle isolation springs were next. This white surface is really nice to work on. 

 The air filter, carb and fuel lines, and ignition wiring are all removed. This job is so much easier being a clean brand new saw. 

 Intake boot, spark plug and the bolts holding the shroud to the engine are all removed.

 The engine can now be removed from the shroud and the whole process gets followed in reverse. Its easy for me to see that no screws are left on the bench although I can't say if any rolled onto the floor. Maybe I should paint the floor white?

 Echo allows 1.3 hours labor for this repair. I came in at about 1.5 hours but its hard to be certain. There are no one hour blocks of time when there are no interruptions so I'm just guessing. I know I can get that number down now that I've been in this model once plus if I ever do it again I probably won't be taking pictures. The work top is a big success and I now wish I'd have done it sooner. One thing not seen in these pics is the right side of the work top near my tool box. I left a 2" overhang and drilled a series of holes so I can store commonly used tools. Its really made a difference in the cleanliness of my work area. I know the guys at the shop will laugh at this but I'm making an effort to clean up my work space. We'll see how that goes.

Later.

Double Pay?

 My brother and I worked together on landscape crews for decades until I finally landed a job where I am now mainly turning wrenches. He runs a crew in the neighboring community and periodically brings me equipment to repair. The other day he brought me a broke ass bacpac blower that had multiple issues and was a pain to start. Apparently 38 pulls was the magic number. I got the machine serviced "as good as its gonna get" given the fact that it has a bit of cylinder scoring due partly to an air leak and also carbon buildup. I advised they shouldn't rely on the machine to last long so it was decided they would replace it. Their "good" unit takes 18 pulls to start so we gave them a deal and they replaced both units.
 Uncle Tommy lives on my route home so I just dropped the blowers off at his house. I had to check out his new shed anyway so the stop had dual purpose. After some bullshittin around, the idea came up that maybe a guy could get double pay for doing twice the work?

 Strap one on back and strap one on front. Start in the middle of the yard and spin around like a tornado till all the leaves are blown to the edges. Simple.
 While on the topic of landscaping I want to congratulate my daughter Mackenzie and her friend Tyler for passing the Landscape Industry Certified Technician test. Certification consists of written and hands on testing in many different areas of landscaping. Some examples include laying sod, reading plans, irrigation, skid steer operation and plant id. I guess Kenzi struggled with planting and staking a tree in 20 minutes but passed, then aced the chainsaw hands on test. Does that mean shes like her dad and is better at taking stuff apart than putting it back together? No, I think it just means shes a smart kid as proven by her high score in the company. I know this certification isn't an Olympic medal but its nice to see young people taking pride in everything they do, in a world of people just trying to scam the system.

Later.

Echo Service School

 Whats up? Business as usual here. Yesterday I attended Echo service school with coworker Trent. The class was pretty much as expected with some service updates, new model discussion and tear down of their new top handle chainsaw. Trent did the wrenching and I sat there and looked interested.

 Not that I was bored but except for the fact that it is the lightest gasoline powered chainsaw in North America, it isn't a revolutionary new design. That's probably a good thing as far as reliable saws go but not so exciting if you're sitting in a classroom.

 Winter is the time of year that I get to plow snow. I say that because I like plowing. As long as things go halfway as planned without too many breakdowns or pissed off customers, its decent work. I've told you about the Ebling Back Blade on my plow truck. They are real time savers and we now have three more Eblings on the crew. Having a back blade and knowing when and how to use it has been a learning curve. Do I take advantage of the 16 foot width all the time? Do I use it to collect spillage from the front blade. Whats the fastest way to move snow with it? How much abuse will it take?
 What I have found is that it works well for pulling docks. I can get snow out from under the trailers easily. I also know it will carry a lot of snow. I have one lot about five acres with a push over a thousand feet and the back blade in combination with the front blade will clear it in good time. But where this blade really shines is when we get under an inch of snow where the blade will carry all the snow from one pass without spillage. On long passes I pull the snow in both directions. In lots that are large and square, I find myself driving around in circles. This is faster than conventional methods of pushing forward then backing up and setting yourself up for another pass. We tried it side by side so I know this is true. Its also safer than backing up hundreds of feet and is easier on the trucks transmission. I was in the truck for about ten hours on Monday and much of it went like this video. Please excuse the raw unedited footage from my phone. I need to get that GoPro back into action.

  The wings with their rubber edges squeegee the asphalt better than the center steel cutting edge but it still does a fine job. Round and round I go. If the snow is deep then I drop the front blade as well to carry more snow. Where I lift the blade and let the snow spill off is where I'll stack it. So easy a monkey could do it.

Later.

Vicious Cycle

 As a two stroke service tech there's a certain amount of tools I need to get the daily job done. It's not a lot of tools like say, a diesel mechanic or an all brand auto mechanic would need, but its a fair amount if you include model specific specialty tools. That doesn't mean I don't have an assload of tools in multiple boxes, it just means some stuff gets used a lot more than other stuff.
 When I was a young lad I remember my grandpa giving me a Christmas present of a craftsman 1/2" drive socket set. This was my first set of new tools that weren't plastic toys and it set the tone for what brand of tools I would buy. He was a great small engine mechanic and used craftsman tools and I wanted to be like him. For much of my adult wrenching life I had to go out and find what I wanted at the store. There was no internet and the only tool trucks that ever stopped at my place of employment were guys with out of state plates selling odd equipment of questionable origin. That's not the case where I work now. The craftsman line isn't really what it used to be and I've been buying whatever brand the vendors that stop by the shop have on sale when I need something.
 Lately I've been thinking about what a dollar really gets me in the form of tools. If I buy the cheap stuff I'll use it daily with ok results and have to replace it multiple times. If I spend more money on quality tools, they get replaced under lifetime warranty and the dude comes to me.
 I've also been thinking about the quality of the work I put out. I don't have much stuff come back for a rework, In fact I can't remember the last time it happened but when it does it bothers me. I know it's just chain saws and weed wackers but some of that stuff is contractor equipment that needs to run so that guy can put food on his table. With the kids out of the house it feels like I can take all of this more seriously. There's time for it. No band concerts or dentist appointments or any of those other responsibilities that weigh on a parent every day. My wife and I spend the evenings together, maybe get out for a bike ride or dinner date on the weekend and that's it. The rest is work and I refuse to suck at and hate my job.
 So where am I going with this? Simple. I spent some of this:

To buy some of these:

So I can better fix these:

 So I can make more money to buy more tools to fix more broken crap...

Later.

We're Back

 I rolled the Ultra out of the garage yesterday and rode it to work for the first time this year. For me that is the official sign that winter is over and regular warm weather activities can resume. After work I rode to my favorite mexican food joint, Grand River Oasis, for carryout. It's about a fifty mile round trip and I saw a lot of bikers on the road. I'm sure they were all thinking the same thing I was...hell ya, we're back in the saddle!

 I won't bore you with an update pic of the spray booth but I will tell you that more progress has been made and I'll fill you in later.

 In work related news, we've been busy. This is the time of year when things can get crazy and if there is a chance for a little fun well then we take it. A while back we hired a guy to help around the shop. This dude would lay on a creeper to work on a push mower rather than tip the machine on its side or put it on a bench. After he quit working here we would joke about it and even exaggerate the act just to get a rise out of the rest of the crew. Friday somebody (I know who you are) decided my freshly cleaned work area would be a good place to store floor jacks. I really don't need a floor jack to fix a chainsaw... or do I?

Later.

Workshop Wednesday-Winch Update

 You may remember a post about a winch we built at work to use as a skid loader attachment. It turned out to be one of those projects that works pretty good on the first effort. So far it has been used to do the logging project it was built for, recovery of an off road bucket lift that was stuck in the mud, and dragging pallets out of semi trailers so they can be forked off. A handy tool to have around and it gets the Greasy Shop Rag stamp of approval.

Later.

Workshop Wednesday- Chainsaw Scabbards

 This time of year we build a few ice saws for the sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago. Ice saws don't use the typical oiler system used when cutting wood. The oil would foul the water and limit visibility in the hole. A simple grease system is used sometimes just after the hole is cut and this prevents freeze up of the chain. Ice saws have a specially cut chain that limits the amount of water thrown and also have shields or covers in place to limit the amount of water that can enter the cooling system and air box. 

 There are regulations on the size of the hole you can spear from and that size is measured at the surface of the ice. For better field of view, many people cut the hole back at an angle so they can see the big fish approaching. This means the saws bar length has to be much longer than the vertical thickness of the ice. 

 The small saw in this pic is average size with a 20" bar. The ice saw has a 42" bar. One issue we have is that Husky currently doesn't offer a scabbard for this big of a bar so we made our own.

The first step is to borrow a "hot box" from a local contractor. These are used to make bends in pvc pipe.

 We slipped a piece of wood through the pvc pipe and set the whole works in the heater. This allowed us to really get the pipe hot and easily lift it out without distortion.

 Next we set the hot pipe on a smooth straight surface. In this case it's a snow plow cutting edge. The piece of wood is still in the pvc pipe. We then quickly lay another cutting edge on top and apply a little weight. The pipe squishes easily and in a minute is hard enough to retain it's shape.

 These are a couple of rough 48" blanks. They will get trimmed to length and have a retaining cord attached to them. Then all that is left is to add a decal with our company name and phone number.
 I had no idea that day that we would be making these. A few ideas turned into possibilities and the next thing ya know we had scabbards. It keeps the job interesting.

Later.

Why Won't My Saw Start?

 This is a story about a guy that thought he was doing everything right until I rained on his parade.

 So this guy shows up at my workbench with a chainsaw that wouldn't start. He was an elderly gentleman with just enough mechanical knowledge to get by but not enough to figure it out. He told me he pulled the spark plug for inspection and to check for spark. I'm told it was clean and grey and he did have a nice blue spark. His next move was to squirt starting fluid in the carb but still nothing. Not even a burp. He then decided to pull the spark arrestor from the muffler to see if it was blocked with carbon. I guess it was nice and clean with a grey tint to it. "I just don't understand why it won't start", he stated.
 At this point I had a pretty good idea what was wrong but I didn't yet know why. I told him he had a scored piston and a stuck ring, and this was resulting in low compression. Engines need a certain amount of compression to run. The unit was junk as repair costs would exceed the value of the saw. I pointed to the scrap metal dumpster but he didn't think that was too funny.
 I was getting that look. It's the look you get when the customer thinks you're just trying to sell new saws. I told him this failure was possibly from, among other things, a lack of lubrication. Now I was getting the look and attitude. He said he didn't believe it and proclaimed he only uses premium ethanol free gasoline and the best outboard motor oil money can buy.
 I believed every word of his story but now I knew the rest of the puzzle. As he ranted about the price and quality of his oil, I pulled the muffler off his saw. Sure enough, the piston was roached. The wannabe mechanic just couldn't believe his eyes. He used quality oil and mixed it with the precision of a pharmacist. I pulled the recoil slowly to allow viewing of the intake side of the cylinder and that wall was scored too. I wondered to myself how many buddies he bragged to about his use of that "quality" marine oil.

Just a generic image of a scored cylinder wall taken with a small inspection camera that connects to my phone.

 I don't like having to tell people they ruined their equipment. I don't get pleasure from this but come on, this stuff is right there in the owners manual. The sad part is most people think a chainsaw owners manual is really just meant to lay in the bottom of their saw case and soak up bar oil. The techies reading this saw the clues. For the rest of you I"ll point out that the grey color on the spark plug and spark arrestor screen was actually aluminum transfer from the cylinder/piston scoring. If you think the scoring was from the starting fluid that doesn't contain lubricating oil, you'd be wrong. The engine never ran on that stuff. The oil he did use was for marine use. That oil is not formulated to work on air cooled engines and will fail under the high temps and loads these chainsaw engines develop.
 Despite the fact that this guy snuck in the back door and I didn't have a work order to justify the time I spent with him, I took another minute or two to educate him on oil. I didn't sell him a new saw that day but as he left he shook my hand and I knew that even though I was the dick head that gave him the bad news, he'd be back and I had earned a new customer.

Later.

Ramblings

 Hey, let me tell you about whats been happening in my motorcycle world lately. Nothin. Notta. Zilch, zero. I did brush against the sportster while wiggling my way to the table saw. I stopped, admired it and wished I could take it for a ride. Does that count? I didn't think so. I won't be riding to work today so I'll be stuck in this rut for a while.
 Yesterday was a blow off day at work as I attended a service school for Husqvarna. I don't want to sound like a know-it-all but I already knew-it-all. The course was aimed more at beginners but we need to attend these things for warranty certification. If we make a claim and they ask us to do, say, a crankcase pressure test, they want to know we understand how. I guess there has also been a lot of claims for faulty ignition modules that weren't actually bad.
 I did find out an answer to a question I had about some saws that had issues. They would run rich and bog or die. When I heard the fix was them using a metal metering diaphragm with a film backing in a new carb, I wondered how the heck a metal piece could flex the same way as a piece of rubber (or whatever those things are traditionally made of). I have some of these replacement carbs so upon return to the shop I opened one up for a looksy.

 The diaphragm in the bottom left is the traditional style. The spiral wound metal one in the carb is the new (to me) style. Pretty cool. Well I think it is anyway.
 Saturday night we made it to Brooke and Mikes annual halloween bash. I went as a drunk chainsaw mechanic. My wife wore her scary monster mask. The chili was great. Being the anti-social bastard that I am, we didn't stick around for the hay ride.

 The bathroom remodel is still in progress. It's coming along fine but I'm having issues dealing with a room that's so out of square. That's all I'm gonna say about that for now.

Later.

Workshop Wednesday-Back To Reality

I saw this sign while on vacation.

 No mowing or spraying? Now that really is a vacation for a guy that's been involved in landscape maintenance most of his life. What I need now is a sign that says "Don't bring me your broken shit till I get caught up from being gone for a week". The pic would be a customer standing there with a chainsaw in his hand, the starter cord hanging all the way out, with a red circle and slash through the pic.
 Everyone at the shop has their own backlog of stuff to fix so I knew it was gonna be like this. And its not just at the shop. When I arrived home on Sunday and rolled into the garage, I only had one narrow strip of clean concrete to park the bike. I had left quite a mess from all the projects I was in a hurry to complete before departing on vacation. I guess what they say is true. Be careful what you wish for.

Later

Workshop Wednesday-EFI

 I reported a while back that Husqvarna has computerized some of their chainsaws. We can connect a laptop and check trouble codes, run tests along with viewing the running history of the machine. It is the future of small engines until something more environmentally friendly comes along.
 Your next lawn mower may be the same way. EFI small engines have been around a few years but I am first being exposed to them now as Husqvarna is using efi engines in some of their zero turn mowers.
 I do the 2 cycle engine repairs at the shop but I was volunteered to do the troubleshooting on this project. Partly because I had the time to load and learn the software and partly because I already had a laptop setup for running other shop software and partly because I like this kind of techy crap.

 The program for troubleshooting this Kohler engine seems very complete. We can monitor every part of the efi system, check codes, log data, set event triggers, access service manuals and so on. In this particular case the MIL (malfunction indicator light) was on but there were no codes stored. Turns out the system is very complete but can't diagnose every problem. For that we needed old fashioned common sense. If the computer says the engine is ok then the problem must be elsewhere. Sure enough, the MIL light had a wire pinched during assembly and was illuminating.

 In other news...the big talk in the shop yesterday was a high speed motorcycle chase. My work space is the closest to the road intersection and I could hear a loud sport bike coming down the road. As it turns out we had a guy running a back hoe in the yard and he heard the bike too. Pretty loud. The rider blew the stop sign and headed down the hiway. Pinned throttle through 6 gears for as long as I could hear him. The sound of the local cops siren finally drowned out the sweet sound of an inline four at full tilt. I have no idea how this story ends but I like that the "big news" in this small town is nothing more than some guy up to shenanigans on his bike.

Later.

what up

 I know its getting closer to riding season because my commute home from work is no longer in the dark. Oh sure its still colder than polar bear paws but at least the wait time to the first ride of the season seems just around the corner.

 Or is it?  I'm enjoying working on bikes this winter but lately I've been jonesing for a ride on the Ultra. Unfortunately that won't be the first bike out of hibernation. Salt residue on the roads will mean the rat or sportster will be the first bikes to drink the sweet petrol this spring. Either way, spring needs to get here quickly or I may slip away into withdrawals. Even my wife has been talking about where we can ride to this spring. Bike fever has spread through this house and we all know there is only one cure.
 So what else? Well I hadn't mentioned it here yet but a few months back my employer sold the business that he built from scratch. This came as a shock to everyone at work as he and the new owner didn't leak their intentions to anyone. Our first reactions were typical. Why? Are you ok? How will this effect me? As it turns out everyone stayed on and although he has some big shoes to fill, it looks like the new owner will do alright. You would think after something like this transpired that  there would be rumor or concern. I'm not hearing any of that and I'm excited to retain my job and move forward.
 Speaking of retaining my job, there is no shortage of broken shit to fix. We've had a streak of breakdowns lately. Some are just regular maintenance things and others are real life dumb shit attacks. So when someone starts with the small talk and asks if we're keeping busy, I laugh and say ya, we're always busy, how can I help you? Translated that means get to the point so I can keep pushing on.
 Back at home in my little workshop I'm sitting at my desk wondering how it got so messed up again. Didn't I just report to you about cleaning it? The pile appears to be about eight inches deep but this time there doesn't seem to be a lot of trash. I must have a hat fetish cuz I can see five without even digging. More GoPro shit, some parts catalogs, the front axle for my BSA along with some engine side cover bolts I bought. I guess there is also some stuff that doesn't belong in here like three sleeves of ritz crackers I forgot to take to work for lunches. Its a small room to be working on two bikes at once so flat surfaces are valuable real estate.
 When I turn around its not much better.

 Brookes tires, tubes and rim strips came in. I gotta get the rear swapped out so I can put the back of the bike together, spin it around on the lift, and pull the forks to check the neck bearings. I see a couple of chainsaws I need to work on. The box under the lift has BSA goodies in it and if you "wheres waldo?" the picture you might see the BSA cylinders I recently got back from honing.
 Brookes little Honda is thirty years old and has been in storage for a while so there is rust on some chrome and the paint is rough. She wants to keep the bike original if possible and because this bike is a special edition model it has a bunch of fancy stickers on it. The plan is to attempt to buff out the tank and make it presentable. I first washed it then used Maguiars Ultra Cut compound with an orbital buffer. I followed up with some wax. It looks like it might be alright but there are some scratches yet and a few chips. I think I'll go back and buff it one more time and re-wax it. It is what it is and the only other option is to source some decals and have a professional paint it. I still need to deal with the inside of the tank. I can hear the rust rolling around in there. More on that when it happens.

 Although my wife and I don't celebrate Hallmark holidays, I figure it wouldn't hurt to say Happy Valentines Day Honey!
 Later.

Workshop Wednesday-Real Men Don't Read Instructions

 RTFOM- Read the freakin owners manual. The people that designed and built the equipment supplied you with an owners manual. Having built the equipment, they probably have a clue how to operate it.
 "My saw starts hard when warm"
  "Show me your starting procedure"
 -customer attempts to start saw-
   Now here I have to make a choice. Do I take the low road and belittle the customer for obviously not reading the manual or listening to our instructions? No. I reserve that snarky behavior for my friends and call it humor. It's odd how we sometimes treat our friends crappier than strangers.
 Depending on the age of the customer determines how I proceed. I had an elderly gentleman confused when I tried to explain setting the fast idle on his saw. Move the choke to full then back to run. The fast idle is set and will return to normal after hitting the trigger. He couldn't wrap his head around it until I reminded him of an automatic choke on an old car. It finally clicked. Nothing had to be done to repair the saw and the customer has not been back with problems.
 Younger customers are a different story. I don't say "the manual says...". Rather, I say "the manufacturer suggests..." because heaven forbid we read the freakin manual. We don't want to offend youngsters that think they know everything but I do like to make sure they leave smarter than when they walked in the store. I try to explain some of the features of a computer controlled saw like my ability to see how any hours are on it or the quality of fuel that was run. It saves a lot of embarrassment later when they try to bullshit me.
 The worst part is that all of this was explained when they bought the saw. So don't walk in and claim your new saw is a piece of shit when the reality is that you thought you knew everything and didn't read the manual or listen to our instruction.
 Another one that gets me is when someone brings one of these "piece of shit" saws into the store huffin and puffin about what kind of junk we sold them only to discover their fuel tank is full of water or bar oil. It will be junk if you don't clean up your fuel supply. And guess what? It's never their fault. It must have been from the neighbor that borrowed the saw. Recently I called a customer with a question about a repair. The wife answered and told me her son was the last one to use the saw yet earlier I was told by the husband that he loaned it to a neighbor. Why all the bullshit?
 "Real men don't read instructions". That's fine if everything goes ok. It's when things go south that you should consider reading the manual. It will save a lot of time and embarrassment. I should add here that it's only a small percentage of people that have these problems. They shout the loudest therefore they get more attention. I suppose I could write a post entitled "Everybody's Happy" with a picture of smiling customers showing off their shiny new chainsaws. Maybe the next pic could be us all having a group hug. Sorry, that's just not the way I roll.

 Not all instructions are easy to read.

 Sometimes you have to rely on the pictures. The point is, I was reading the instructions!
Rant over.

Workshop Wednesday-Shop Stuff

 What am I gonna write about next? That question is asked of me all the time at the shop. Whenever something odd happens, "Hey you should put that in the blog". If I followed that advice I'd be talking about things like setting the clocks back. Everyone keeps looking at the clock and asking if it was turned back yet? At 4 pm it should be quitting time (5pm) but the clocks are turned back. One more hour of work. One more hour for the sun to go down and a dark ride home.

 Maybe I could tell you about the guy that came into the shop whining about his chainsaw that wouldn't stay running. "I just had you fix it in June". Yes our records show we replaced a fuel hose. We're pretty busy but I'll look into it right away. Turns out he had a whole lot of water in his fuel tank. You can't pin that one on me and you'll be getting a bill.
 I guess I could make a whole blog post about the torsion bars that wouldn't come off a chevy truck despite the efforts of four shop techs and a bunch of hammers ranging from small sledges to a large electric jack hammer. In the end the answer was to use a torch and replace a few parts.
 A story I like but am not gonna talk about is the one where Al screams like a little school girl. OK you twisted my arm, I'll give you the short version. Al and I were in a storage building looking for a radiator that might fit into a forklift repair. While balancing on a couple wobbling barrels, Al lifted the tarp off a wooden box to see what might be in there. To his surprise he was now face to face with a raccoon! (insert scream!) I laughed but kept my distance. The story quickly spread through the shop and it didn't take long before the young bucks went out there and (ahem) diffused the situation. (In Als defense, anyone not looking for a critter would have been just as startled.)
 What I thought I was gonna write about is my riding jacket. It's over ten years old and has tens of thousands of miles on it. I've had it for five different bikes and it has been to a few cool places and been through some really crappy weather. A lot of good memories were made wearing this jacket. Well just the other day the zipper broke.

  The zipper works but the pull tab broke off. It makes it hard to open and close and impossible to operate with gloves on. The rest of the jacket has a lot of life left in it so I looked at ways to fix the zipper.

 A little piece of wire and a key ring should get me by for now. I think it may be repairable. I'll have to look into that.
 What I really want to say is I'll be riding the bike to work again this morning and enjoying the above normal november temps. The forecast looks favorable for riding yet next week. Woohoo!

Workshop Wednesday-My Saw Quit Oiling

 I've had a few people tell me that they enjoy reading this blog because every so often they learn something new. So to keep the peeps happy I'll continue to throw in a few workshop wednesday posts that are purely educational.
 One very popular customer complaint I hear is "my chainsaw oiler isn't working". We all know what a chainsaw is but I know some of the readers here have never used one so I'll explain. The chain on a chainsaw runs in a groove on a bar at a super (duper) high speed. It needs to be lubed or the bar, chain and drive sprocket will wear out prematurely. Oil is added to a tank and then moved to the bar via a pump.
 Now most everyone that buys a saw knows this very basic information. The problem comes in when some people don't realize how this happens. The oil has to get to the bar somehow and most of the time that path involves the oil moving through a hole in the bar to the groove in the bar where it lubes the chain.

 The hole I'm pointing to is where the oil passes through to the groove in the bar. See, nice and clean...now. It didn't come in that way.

 Here you can see the hole is plugged. The oiler won't work this way. Debris gets under the chain and then gets packed into the hole. By the way...Ewwwww. Look at all the hair stuck to this bar. I suspect some of the "debris" plugging this hole is animal parts. I don't judge. I just fix the saws.

 Sometimes the saw isn't oiling but the hole in the bar is clear. This seems to usually boil down to a few things. One thing could be a hole in the line running from the tank to the pump. Another could be debris in that line. This happens when crap gets in the tank during oil fill-ups or if the filter/screen falls off the line in the tank. Another problem could be a plugged vent in the tank. I find that a systematic cleaning and inspection of the entire oiler system usually reveals the problem. I only dig into this if my initial inspection of the oiler drive gear proves it to be ok.

 The oiler usually lives behind the clutch. Some like the one pictured above are driven by the crankshaft and oil all the time. Others are driven by the clutch and only oil when the chain is turning. This is a bad one. You can see the plastic gear is worn and the pump will never turn this way.
 So there you have it. Some basics on automatic chainsaw oilers. Happy?

Piston Lock

 People bring broken equipment into our shop everyday. Sometimes the equipment just fails. Sometimes it wears out. Other times the owner tries to fix it on his own and creates more problems. We are going to talk about one of those times. Not to belittle the guy that made the mistake. No, he feels bad enough. I just want to put this out there so anyone reading this doesn't make the same mistake.
 Before we get into it I need to post this pic of Al.

 I couldn't believe he let me take this pic so I of course had to post it. Things are slower in the winter and sometimes we have time to be goofy. I want to be clear, Al is NOT the person that made the mistake with the chainsaw.

 Back to our broken saw. The customer wanted to remove the clutch and do some repairs on the oil pump. To remove the clutch you need to prevent the engine from turning over so you can unscrew the clutch from the crankshaft. A popular way of locking the engine is with a piston stop. This could be a special tool, a stopper that replaces the spark plug or even a piece of rope pushed into the cylinder through the spark plug hole.
 Our guy tried something else. There was a note on the repair card about the customer using a skrench (that tool you get with some equipment that is a screwdriver and a spark plug socket in one) to hold the piston. At first I didn't realize what was being said but then it was pointed out that he admitted to putting the screwdriver into the spark plug hole, across the top of the piston and into the exhaust port. I'll try to explain better with this pic.

 Now certainly this will lock the engine. I'm sure he felt pretty good about his repair until he tried to start the engine. What happened?

  This is a look from the exhaust port where the screwdriver was sticking out. You can barely make out the dent on top of the piston.

 Here you can see where the screwdriver crossed the top of the piston. The burr created from the screwdriver jammed in the port and the pressure applied when removing the clutch created a raised edge and then this scoring. Now the piston ring is seized in the groove and can't seal very well to the cylinder. The engine only develops 90 psi compression and that's not enough for the engine to run.
 This saw will get a new piston and cylinder. A costly mistake that you will never make.

End.
 

Workshop Wednesday-Leaky Boots

 No I'm not talking about wet feet.

 Whenever a piece of equipment comes through with a complaint about erratic idle, the problem can usually be connected to an air leak. Hard starting issues can also be attributed to air leaks. Some leaks are very small and hard to detect. Others are more obvious. This saw looks pretty normal at first glance.

Upon further investigation we find this:

 This intake boot is pulled away from the manifold adapter. This will cause a lean condition and also allow dirt into the engine.
 This repair is pretty simple and not too expensive. The problem is that we don't know how long it ran this way and how much dirt was ingested. It should be noted that these air leaks can also occur at the crank seals and the cylinder base gasket. It's also not often a leak is this big and obvious. Usually a leak big enough to effect engine performance is visually undetectable.
 The lesson to be learned here is that if you have a small two cycle engine that develops a high or erratic idle or is boggy and low on power don't continue running it. Besides possible dirt ingestion, the lean condition can eventually cook the engine and ruin it.
 Why am I posting this? Why not. It's a big part of what I see when working on saws. If you can understand the importance of a tightly sealed crankcase in a two cycle engine then you can become a better fix-it dude. And when it comes down to it, isn't that all we really want?

Later.

Blank Slate

 What's up? My wife is gone on a ten day cruise so I've been keeping busy in the shop, right? Sadly, no. Kegger party every night...not. Instead, yesterday I drove down to Madison to visit my daughter. We had a nice visit but a bit too short.

 I've also been doing some online training in preparation for an upcoming service school. I've been to a few Husqvarna service schools and I'm familiar with their line but this is an Echo/Shindaiwa school. I just want to make sure I have a clue about their engines before I go to a school called "Advanced Troubleshooting and Failure Analysis".  Ya they all work pretty much the same way but I am picking up a few quirks specific to their line.

 I have been giving a lot of thought to a new fuel tank for the Rat Turd. I know I've brought this up before but I think I may scrap any previous ideas and go a different route. The tractor grill idea is starting to bore me.

 So what I have here is a blank slate. I want to build a tank from scratch. A lot of ideas have been sloshing around between my ears. Some include multiple cylinders and chambers. Others are just weird shapes. One idea even includes a mix of steam punk and barbed wire. Odds are the end result will be a combination of all of these. I'll collect potential building materials for a while until one day it just happens. It's nice not being under the pressure of a schedule.

I woke up this morning to a picture message from my wife:

 It looks warm and I know she is enjoying it. I looked out my window and saw a fresh blanket of snow. It looks like about 3-4". I'll be enjoying it later when it stops and I go out plowing. That means I may miss some of the big game today. No biggie. I'm not cheering for either team. I'm just in it for the commercials this year.

End.