Never post anything bad about CB or this might happen.....

[serrano]

From a poster on Cal-Look,

Sad to see all this bad karma in a small comunity of VW people.I live over in Sweden and have orderd a lot of parts from Serrano with good results. When a person like Jack cuts in and pretends to be snowhite it pisses me of. I will not post any facts but jack knows about his dealings with Swedish customers. I think the whole industry should face up to the obvius facts,it´s all about copying or trying to make the customer think you have a better product coming from the same manufacturer as all the others. When there is a problem with a product wouldnt it be better if the supplier posted a warning instead of letting the market find out afterwards. For me being born in the fifties it just goes to show that a lot of people still havent learned or accepted the enormous power of the internet. It doesnt matter how far away your customers are today,your bad karma will catch up with you faster than you think. I wish for the best for the VW comunity that this thing is resolved so we can focus on more relevant issues like horsepower and 60foot times.

[spookymulder]

When a part is heated to any extreme and left to cool it weakens the metal. Heated steel needs to be anealed to retain its strength. Sounds like fault of the builder to me. What method was used to gauge the temps applied to insure it was not overheated?

[serrano]

Been heating gears since I was 15 yrs old and never have had any problems until lately. I'm sure just about everybody heats them up.
Not red hot, but hot enough to make it easier to install.

I did a search on Google and got this

From: John Connolly - view profile
Date: Sat, Oct 10 1998 12:00 am
Email: John Connolly <[email protected]>
Groups: rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled
Not yet ratedRating:
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heat them to just shy of 300 degrees F. They fall right on.

John



Steve
Serranos

[bugnut68]

[spookymulder]

So if heating to 300 is good heating to 500 is better?

[serrano]

I've known that CB has disliked us for a long time, its no secret.
CB sell's retail and I was cutting into there business to deep.
Such is life, we'll go on and see whats happens next.

As for Mariannes post I really feel its just really Rick telling here what to say.
We've been a CB vendor for over 20 years that I know of and when a company sells direct and wholesale is does cause problems.

Tomorrows GOT to be a better day......

Steve

[bugnut68]

[jimmy1]

i used a coffee mug warmer to heat cam gears, works great!
_________________
North Hollywood, CA
1956 Kabrolett
"I'd rather be driving my VW thinking about God than sitting in church thinking about my VW."



check out my classified ads, lots of rare parts/accessories for sale.

[markm]

Oh, come on Steve. I've given you the benefit of doubt on several occasions and haven't cried wolf. Any time people have a hand in something, there are bound to be mistakes. By going what you said in the Cal look forums, the gear failed before putting the engine together completely. It sucks, yea! but CB has been producing some good stuff too. People in glass houses...

[serrano]

The gear did NOT fail before, Phil ran the motor for 20-30 minutes before it let loose.
Once that gear pops you'll know it when your building the motor...

[Glenn]

There's a lot more than just a bad run of crank gears. There seems to be some money issues and other stuff that isn't publicly know. I can't believe that CB was willing to give up, as steve said $400K in business over a a few bad parts.

Steve, who's crank was it that the gear broke on? Was the crank checked to see that it measured up? Was the crank too big or the gear too small?

I don't know what's going on, but I can tell you this got totally out of hand and is no good for you, for CB, for the Samba and for the Cal Look Forum.

It's too late to take this private and the damage is done to everyone.
_________________
Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[serrano]

I would assume so...But, I didn't built it one of my builders did.
CB 69mm 4140 crank was used. This happen about a year or two ago and CB did a sort of recall on all the gear sets that had a certain type bolt.
Maybe they had changed mfg's? No idea... but it has happened before.

I brought it out of the dark, made it public and got blasted......

As for money, CB has been paid and has not lost any money over me.
We just gave them about 17-18K this week.

Steve

[Mr. Motorhead]

Has anybody actually measured anything with any accuracy yet and done a comparison with new factory parts? If you (I mean Steve) have any more of these products on the shelf (cranks and gear sets) would it not be prudent to break them out on the bench and check them with your measureing tools to determine if they are within spec or not (Too small/big?)
_________________
30 years experience in the sales of new and used auto parts!
36 horsepower parts for sale at http://www.aircooledresearch.com/
Or the new site at http://www.bugparts.com
Check out the Bonneville project:
http://aircooledresearch.com/docs/thebonnevilleproject.html#

"All limitations are self imposed."
Some Chinese guy

[Ace]

That takes time. Time is money.

[Glenn]

[spookymulder]

LESS TIME hammering on a computer would allow for MORE TIME to check part tolerances

[Ann Mezger]

For everyone who is confused about the fact of whether or not the issue is a faulty part that CB knew about or piss poor assembly on Serrano's part to be blamed, if you READ the email from Rick at CB it's VERY CLEAR that CB admits & is fully aware of the problem with faulty parts. They just didn't want the general public to know about it, which IMO is very wrong. People have the right to know about products whether they are good or bad. If a company is soooooo worried about their reputation, maybe they should produce / sell better quality products. Get rid of the junk & everybody will be happy! Here's a quote of the email so you guys can quit bickering about it.

[Mr. Motorhead]

[bugracer99]

Speaking of bad products from C.B., have any of you ever tried the 3 wire air/fuel ratio meters CB was selling a couple of years ago? Not only were the instructions TOTALY wrong but when I called to ask for help the BOZO on the phone actually laughed at me! $125 or more down the drain (never did get the thing to work) & a Jerk on the phone. THANKS CB..................!?! :fist:


Tom V
_________________
VW, 2k - Engine, 8k - Trans, 3.5k, - Seen' that water-pumper in your rearvew, PRICELESS

[bugninva]