Well that's a couple of hours of my life wasted, rebuilding a fly wheel and fitting new pins, spend 20 minutes polishing them up to be good enough in the lathe, then! the new ring gear fits like a d**k in a shirt sleeve.
Fitting new clamp plates to the magnets, well that steel I could just about bend with my fingers, brass screws no more that a nip to start to check heights and they all look like horse shoes! on with the old ones.
Wouldn't be so bad if I could send it back and get more new stuff over night but it costs postage for half way around the world and 2 weeks to get here. Frustrating!!!
Thanks for the warning, have heard about the clamp plates before, but never heard about problems with the ring gear besides the threads being wrong on some repros?
How does it mismatch? Larger diameter than the flywheel? Would shim stock and/or or loctite help?
I am about to rebuild our 1911 transmission cover and just ordered all new cams etc. Interesting to see what problems are going to happen on assembly...
You didn't say who your supplier was, and since one never really knows for sure mostly, where the part itself actually originates from. But, I think that when this stuff happens, and it seems to happen a lot, where we buy these from need to be brought to the fore-front, and maybe this exposure will eventually help to bring about a resolution. No good company wants their name with egg on it, but then, I think it's up to them to assure a good quality part is going out their door to us. And if people don't expose it enough, it'll never get rectified. And in all fairness to the people we buy from, if they're not informed, one way or another, then they can't try to fix the issue either. Just my 2 cents.
It is very important that you list the supplier, because when you don't, ALL of the suppliers are suspect, which is not fair to the good ones who do not sell inferior parts. Also, they may not be aware of the problem and if it is posted for all of their customers to see, I'm sure the problem will be corrected in a hurry. Also, because of the bad publicity, the offending supplier might send you good parts free of charge for customer goodwill and to counteract the bad publicity. Jim Patrick
I agree with Jim Patrick up to a point. If it were me, I'd contact the supplier and give him a chance to fix the problem, first. Then, when I mentioned his name, I'd also, in the same breath, be able to say how sincere he was about correcting the problem. It's only fair to give the guy a chance to look good when the name of his company gets posted in connection to a problem.
I agree Bob, that it should be done in the order that you say, but when it's not, and a complaint is made beforehand, we need to know who it is about. Then, when the offending supplier has or has not corrected the problem satisfactorily, a followup can be posted. Sort of like feedback on ebay, so we know what type of vendor we are dealing with...one that cares about the customer or one that does not care. Jim Patrick
Problem: though I'd like to know myself who it is where's the vendor going to get different replacement parts from anyway? I figure the "big boys" all get their supplies from the same manufacturers.
The most progressive supplier(s), the one(s) most interested in their customers, will take negative feedback and require their manufacturing vendor(s) to improve the product(s). If the manufacturer of a substandard product is indifferent to the end-user customer and does nothing to change it, this situation practically begs for a new competitor to enter the market, or for an old one to awaken.
Our parts suppliers are stocking distributors; to my knowledge, they manufacture nothing, or very, very little. I don't want to say, "It's not their fault" primarily because they are as clueless to a substandard product as we are, at least until 1. One of us tells them, and/or 2. They as hobbyists use it themselves.
However, as I said, the progressive, interested suppliers, once they know of a substandard product, will work to correct that.
I'd sure like to know of any parts that are so inferior that their failure can spell the destruction of my transmission, so I can find used original Ford parts that cannot be bent by hand. If we don't buy the inferior parts, and the parts sit on the shelves collecting dust, perhaps the vendors will get the message and find a manufacturer to supply quality parts. We cannot afford to take a chance on our cars with inferior parts. Jim Patrick
Jim, I agree with you about not taking chances with inferior parts; our T's are inherently risky already in modern traffic.
I started a thread about this subject.
Bill E.
I recently contacted a supplier about buying a rear wheel puller. He was very up front about how the Model T wheel pullers manufactured today are of poor quality and I'd be better off if I could find a vintage unit. Hey, that's honesty.
Kerry,
Can you be more specific about exactly what the problem with the flywheel ring gear is. Fit's like a d**k in a shirt sleeve doesn't really convey what the problem is. As far as I know there is only one supplier and quite a few of these are being sold. I was not aware of any issues other then they tapped the holes 1/4-20 instead of #14-28. The "fix" is to use the 1/4-20 brass screws. It would be nice to know what the problem is.
Dave S.
Thanks for your feed back, I buy from 2 T suppliers in the USA, they will be informed but to blame them publicly would be wrong as I don't believe they make the parts, I don't know about your end of the world but to 'name and shame' in our end could end up in a court room.
As for the ring gear, I have always started the fit with 4 old screws as guides and tap the ring on, in this case the ring fell on with less than finger push, so screwed the new and old ring gear together to check and the internal, on the new is a couple of thou larger, so now on with locktite. The screws and ring gear threads are fine.
Your Right Kerry. We had some ring gears that were to large also in the I.D.
Fords fit with a snug push, to a snug tap down.
If a guy uses one with a sloppy fit, the starter will raise heck with it.
I put a new one on last week, and I had to tap it on, but 3 times ago had to send one back.
The brass screws will keep it from turning, but if it dosn't have a snug fit on the flywheel, the starter will break brass screws, as that is all that holds it.
Dave, I believe the original thread is #14 x 24, not 28.
R.V. - Sorry - my bad.
Kerry - thanks for the description of the problem. I was not aware of that before.
Dave S.
I can only guess where Herm's reject went.
Well,1 thing that bugs me is this.
I dont think anyone would do this but it would be easy to send the "junk" overseas and fiqure they will make do and it cost to much to send it back.
I know I have gotten ahold of some crap before and it aint the venders fault of the quality.But until the vender is told, "hey,you sold some 00000 that wont fit!".They wont know other wise.