Today I had the misfortune of being called out to help a customer fix a mower I have never worked on before.
Now I must confess that I did not go out with the open & objective mind that I should have when looking at a new piece of equipment.
Firstly the "I can't get the parts I have bought to fit " syndrome usually ends up in tears & me looking either uncooperative or greedy when I try to recover th actual time spent in rectifying the owners "fixes"
And secondly because I have suffered a few previous encounters with the same makers cheap & nasty Honda Self propelled look alikes .
Previously the original seller did not want to know about it & referred me to the previous repairer who also was not interested in supplying parts and was in fact unable to even find the correct part given the model & serial numbers.
They eventually directed me to the current importers who wanted to see the part so they could match it. Not the sort of thing that creates great faith in the brand.
Any way, this is what I was confronted with on a machine ( 60" Cobra ) that has done 56 hours, I repeat this is a supposed commercial mower with 56 hours on the clock over the 16 months the owner has had the machine.
Boss.jpgFlange.jpgBoth.jpg
The front spindle pulley had failed by the boss detatching from the pulley flange.
If you look closely at the first picture you will note that it is a TIG weld with a massive under cut.
This picture has the boss upside down so it would not be visible when inspecting the machine without using a mirror.
Compare that weld to the one in the second picture where you can see the nice ( and it is good even if the end pool was not properly filled ) fillet on the top of the pulley where it is visible to the mug purchaser.
All 3 pulleys were welded exactly the same as was the replacement. How much is 6" of filler rod worth and if that is what the pulleys are like I can only imagine what the welds are like under and inside where they can not be seen without partial disassembly.
I could not get a good picture with the I phone but the flange of the pulley looks very thin. Thinner than any commercial mower spindle pulley I have ever come across and I would guess it is just under the minimum thickness required for a pulley of this size ( about 9" ) should it have been made from good quality USA or Aust steel but I suspect it was fabricated from slightly under specification Chineese pretend steel.
Bad thing is the fracture surface was too damaged for any proper determination ( I used to be a metallurgist ) but there was no apparent necking and the fracture face was just far enough away to almost rule out a transitional failure at the tip of the heat affected zone of the weld unless it was welded in an open yard in sub zero temperatures without any pre heat.
The owner could not remove the boss from the spindle shaft and I had to pop a bearing separator under it and apply way too much force to get it off suggesting it was a either a light press fit or poor machining tolerances .
The spindle is mounted from the underside of the deck thus the pulley has to be fitted in situ so it will be interesting to have a look at the spindle bearings.
The World agent tod him to "remove the pin & it will come off easily " which is interesting because there is no pin and the key is not accessible with the boss on the shaft.
The owner thinks he got a steal particularly as the replacement spindle ( warrantee was not honoured ) only cost him $ 27.00 where as the pulley for his old Dane was $ 75 and his neighbour paid $ 65 for spindle pulleys on the Dixie.
the good thing is I can see me making a LOT of money out of this machine because the other two spindle pulleys will most likely suffer the same fate in the near future.
In 56 hours the plstic thumb screw heads had detached from the spindle cover screws so it will be a spanner job to refit the belt every time it jumps off.
Now according to the bumph on the Aust web site If you fell like a good laugh, read it
This machine is fitted with a REAL Kawakasi V twin but a cursory glance noticed a Stens filter was fitted which has not been changed since new, SO Kawakasi is apparently suplying new motors with afermarket Stens oil filters fitted now days , never seen that before, but I could be wrong, however the retail price of all the supposed brand name components adds up to nearly 1/2 the retail cost of the machine so some thing there smells a bit funny. particularly as there is no Hydro Gear identity tags to be seen any where on the machine & the last time I fitted a repacement Hydro gear pump it came with 5 tags and instructions where to put them.
Since my last encounter with WORLD LAWN Rubbish the USA agent has put up a really good web site. Seems there s a lot more money available for web presence than there is for QC. Home - Worldlawn Power Equipment, Inc.Worldlawn Power Equipment, Inc.
The Australian distributor has done the usual Aussie thing, a slick looking web site with no actual content. The Truth About The Mower Industry: Worldlawn Australia
Now I must confess that I did not go out with the open & objective mind that I should have when looking at a new piece of equipment.
Firstly the "I can't get the parts I have bought to fit " syndrome usually ends up in tears & me looking either uncooperative or greedy when I try to recover th actual time spent in rectifying the owners "fixes"
And secondly because I have suffered a few previous encounters with the same makers cheap & nasty Honda Self propelled look alikes .
Previously the original seller did not want to know about it & referred me to the previous repairer who also was not interested in supplying parts and was in fact unable to even find the correct part given the model & serial numbers.
They eventually directed me to the current importers who wanted to see the part so they could match it. Not the sort of thing that creates great faith in the brand.
Any way, this is what I was confronted with on a machine ( 60" Cobra ) that has done 56 hours, I repeat this is a supposed commercial mower with 56 hours on the clock over the 16 months the owner has had the machine.
Boss.jpgFlange.jpgBoth.jpg
The front spindle pulley had failed by the boss detatching from the pulley flange.
If you look closely at the first picture you will note that it is a TIG weld with a massive under cut.
This picture has the boss upside down so it would not be visible when inspecting the machine without using a mirror.
Compare that weld to the one in the second picture where you can see the nice ( and it is good even if the end pool was not properly filled ) fillet on the top of the pulley where it is visible to the mug purchaser.
All 3 pulleys were welded exactly the same as was the replacement. How much is 6" of filler rod worth and if that is what the pulleys are like I can only imagine what the welds are like under and inside where they can not be seen without partial disassembly.
I could not get a good picture with the I phone but the flange of the pulley looks very thin. Thinner than any commercial mower spindle pulley I have ever come across and I would guess it is just under the minimum thickness required for a pulley of this size ( about 9" ) should it have been made from good quality USA or Aust steel but I suspect it was fabricated from slightly under specification Chineese pretend steel.
Bad thing is the fracture surface was too damaged for any proper determination ( I used to be a metallurgist ) but there was no apparent necking and the fracture face was just far enough away to almost rule out a transitional failure at the tip of the heat affected zone of the weld unless it was welded in an open yard in sub zero temperatures without any pre heat.
The owner could not remove the boss from the spindle shaft and I had to pop a bearing separator under it and apply way too much force to get it off suggesting it was a either a light press fit or poor machining tolerances .
The spindle is mounted from the underside of the deck thus the pulley has to be fitted in situ so it will be interesting to have a look at the spindle bearings.
The World agent tod him to "remove the pin & it will come off easily " which is interesting because there is no pin and the key is not accessible with the boss on the shaft.
The owner thinks he got a steal particularly as the replacement spindle ( warrantee was not honoured ) only cost him $ 27.00 where as the pulley for his old Dane was $ 75 and his neighbour paid $ 65 for spindle pulleys on the Dixie.
the good thing is I can see me making a LOT of money out of this machine because the other two spindle pulleys will most likely suffer the same fate in the near future.
In 56 hours the plstic thumb screw heads had detached from the spindle cover screws so it will be a spanner job to refit the belt every time it jumps off.
Now according to the bumph on the Aust web site If you fell like a good laugh, read it
This machine is fitted with a REAL Kawakasi V twin but a cursory glance noticed a Stens filter was fitted which has not been changed since new, SO Kawakasi is apparently suplying new motors with afermarket Stens oil filters fitted now days , never seen that before, but I could be wrong, however the retail price of all the supposed brand name components adds up to nearly 1/2 the retail cost of the machine so some thing there smells a bit funny. particularly as there is no Hydro Gear identity tags to be seen any where on the machine & the last time I fitted a repacement Hydro gear pump it came with 5 tags and instructions where to put them.
Since my last encounter with WORLD LAWN Rubbish the USA agent has put up a really good web site. Seems there s a lot more money available for web presence than there is for QC. Home - Worldlawn Power Equipment, Inc.Worldlawn Power Equipment, Inc.
The Australian distributor has done the usual Aussie thing, a slick looking web site with no actual content. The Truth About The Mower Industry: Worldlawn Australia
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire