welded crankshaft runout

[lecroy]

I was thinking about your bike the other day. There was a GS trans on eBay with billet shaft, 2nd and 3rd. No drum or forks. I tried to get it but $700 was a little more than I wanted to part with for used parts.


Let me ask two dumb questions then. If there is no problem with oil, why did Suzuki put a feed for it and gasket the plate? What was he recommending to use for shims or did he say Loctite only? The clutch shims are a perfect fit but may need to be ground.


I was just trying to give him a little feedback on the crank. Yes, old news for you but you may help the next person. They can't improve if they don't hear from their customers.

[Big Jay]

This is his original post:



This was after receiving the crank from you. Also, note that he was planning to put this into a larger bore drag bike. I would have thought your guys would have asked what the application was and then make recommendations, not just go ahead and weld it.

I can see where you wouldn't expect much for the $100, but I would rather a company ask some good questions and tell me what really needs to be done. For the few minutes you spend asking questions, you may make more money on a bigger job and the customers gets what they need. Come on, how many Suzuki drag bikes do you know that are running the stock helical gears?

Maybe I missed something but I don't see where your company provided any service. Sounds like Stan did a good job rebuilding it for him after the fact.

I have used many of your products over the years and have never had any problems. The quality of your parts has always been very good IMO. The wrist pins your company custom made for me appear to be top notch. From reading his posts I would not have guessed it was your company doing the work. I would offer him a refund, but I'm not running the show.

Let me see if I can make this more clear. Our crankshaft services are listed on our websites. We are THE place for plain bearing crank work. However, for roller bearing cranks, we only offer welding the pins for $89.00.
We do not offer any kind of crank rebuilding, for those cranks. When a customer sends us a crank that has a helical gear on it, to be welded, we assume he knows it has a helical gear, and that must be what he wanted or he would not have sent it to be welded.

We have a working relationship with Stan Gardner. He sends us all the plain bearing crank customers, and except for welding the pins, we send all of the roller bearing business to him.

Hope this clears this up.

Glad to hear that you have had good sucess with our parts. Always like to hear that.


Jay

[lecroy]

However, for roller bearing cranks, we only offer welding the pins for $89.00.
We do not offer any kind of crank rebuilding, for those cranks. When a customer sends us a crank that has a helical gear on it, to be welded, we assume he knows it has a helical gear, and that must be what he wanted or he would not have sent it to be welded. Jay

Jay, this is good info to have. I assumed APE could rebuild the cranks. I think the problem is you assume customers know what they need. One reason for this site, at least we can share what little we know. When I think of APE, I think of experts in the business. IMO, your offering to do this work may make a little more money for the company but I don't think it helps your rep.

Why would your company return a crank that exceeded the run out tol.? Normally do you check for runout after welding? IMO, if you warped the crank, or even if it was out prior to your welding, you really did not do the job right.